


In the Desert

by R_S



Series: A.L.Z [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alcohol, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Underage Relationship(s), M/M, Pre-Timeskip, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2015-11-03
Packaged: 2018-03-02 13:00:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 25,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2812898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/R_S/pseuds/R_S
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He found Ace again, in that desert country.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Him

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own One Piece. That honor belongs to Eiichiro Oda.

Alabasta is where that man was seen again. Portgus D Ace. The older brother, well, one of the older brothers… it doesn’t really matter. It was the desert that that brought them together, and at the very moment the desert was in darkness. Cold wind, colder than deep winter back home in Foosha Village had ever been. The wind kept talking, even as everyone started to finally go to sleep. 

But Luffy couldn’t sleep. 

The young captain didn’t like this wind. He didn’t trust it.

“Oi, Lu.” Ace had pulled his long coat over his chest, the temperature could drop below freezing, according to Vivi – and according to Nami that’s really cold, and so Luffy has to wear a coat. 

Luffy smiled to his brother, and the older climbing up the rock face to where his brother was sitting cross-legged under a couple of blankets. Ace settled himself up on top of the rock, which was shaped perfectly to create a natural calm zone, protecting them from most of the strong winds that pushed up the little sandy canyon. The Logia was about to voice his admiration for such a spot when he noticed that his brother was not sitting up here alone. 

Huddled into the three or so blankets were Luffy’s crew. His “Navigator, Doctor, Cook, Sniper, and Zoro.” He told his brother in whispers, fondness for all of them in his voice, and he made slight touches as he introduced them, as if to check that they were real. 

Ace had known Luffy for a long time before they parted ways. A long time as brothers, living in that treehouse together after Sabo died. He knows Luffy, how he cares for those who gravitate towards him. 

“How come only one of them has a name?” Ace asked in low tones. The redheaded girl on his brother’s crew had already grumbled a string of half-conscious threats, turning away from their voices until she was nuzzled into the Strawhat sniper’s back. 

Luffy tried to suppress a snortful giggle. He almost manages it. “Baka, they all have names.” And he reintroduces all of his dear nakama in turn for his older brother.

When Ace had learned everyone’s name he settled his back against the wall of that little scoop of rock, Luffy watched him. Luffy always watched Ace, always had, since he was six. It was a habit he contemplated breaking, almost the very hour he had run into his brother again in Nanohana. Getting lost from his crew because he was watching Ace fight. It wasn’t the end of the world, his crew were strong! but Luffy knew he should’ve been able to get back to them if he wanted. He wasn’t unable to read street signs. The shouting at he had gotten from Nami still echoed in his ears, about his responsibilities as Captain. 

“Ace is not a captain anymore?” Luffy asks, staring upwards at the stars. The sky cloudless and clear, and great constellations appeared over the desert. Vivi had told him the names of a few, just before she had gone to sleep. Luffy had already forgotten the names, but he stared anyway. He had to, like a need. 

“Na.” Ace looked up at the sky as well. So rarely did he see such an open field of vast starlight, appreciation stretched his lips. “I don’t mind though, I have a new dream now, better than the last one.” 

“What’s that?” 

“See tomorrow.” 

Luffy’s hand twitches, drawing circles on Zoro’s shoulder because that just so happens to be where his hand is. The swordsman wakes at the action, but doesn’t open his eyes. He can sense the other pirate, Luffy’s older brother. 

The motion of Luffy’s hand on his first mate’s aching shoulder is enough to lull Zoro back to sleep, but he didn’t. He listened to the two brothers’ silence, the wind behind them. Zoro knew there was a conversation going on, one that he was deaf to. That thought grated at Zoro, because he still could not read his captain as well as he liked. There was a reason he allowed Luffy to watch over them while they all slept, a reason it was Zoro resting in his captain’s lap. A reason for everything, because Zoro has a reason for everything. Luffy loved to challenge those reasons, and in fact Luffy’s the only one who can. He’d kill the shit-cook if he came at him the same way Luffy did. Nami too, maybe, though the sea-witch would most likely just frisk him for money… 

“That sounds like a good dream.” Luffy says, still petting slowly across Zoro’s shoulder. 

“You disappointed in me, because I’m not a captain, captain?” 

“Why would I do that?” The Strawhat Sencho gave a quiet laugh. “I’m not going to tell Ace how to live his life, only Ace can do that.” 

“Freer than anyone.” Ace’s whisper vibrated, like a song.

“On the Sea of Adventure.” Luffy finished the verse as the two of them lifted invisible sake cups into the air. 

Luffy sighed. 

“Is he your lover?” Ace asked, nodding to the green haired swordsman of whom Luffy was stroking down shoulders and back without even really realizing it. 

“Donno yet.” Luffy’s reply fell sharp into Zoro’s skin, and he could not hide the full body tremor that Luffy was able to read as if Zoro had spoken aloud. 

“He’s a cute one, I have to say that.” 

“Ace can’t have him.” Luffy’s thumb drove comfortably between Zoro’s right collarbone and shoulder, worrying into a nest of bunched up muscle that his swordsman had not been able to relax himself. Luffy’s touch opened him up, and he sighed, right arm wrapping around Luffy’s hips as he simply buried his face into the blankets. Usopp muttered something at the sudden noise, but didn’t wake up. 

“You really are in love.” Ace chortled, staring up at the sky again. 

“Missed Ace.” Luffy admits, quietly, as if he’s just talking to himself, but both Ace and Zoro hear him. 

~  
Luffy works on Zoro’s shoulders for the rest of the night, and though the swordsman makes an effort to stay awake, Luffy and Ace didn’t say one single word more that entire evening. It wasn’t until dawn that ‘good mornings’ and other pleasantries began, but Luffy and Ace did not speak until they all sat down for breakfast. 

“We should make twenty miles today, to reach Yuba as quickly as possible.” Nami was saying, gaging the wind and acclimating a map she had, to an Alabastan compasses designed specifically for use on Vivi’s home island. 

“Ahh?” Usopp hung his head, the desert really was hell. 

“I can convince the rebellion in Yuba to lay down arms, and invite delegates for negotiation back to Alburna, and finally – finally – my country will begin to heal.” 

Luffy’s meat was halfway to his lips, and he was still chewing a previous bite. His eyes locked on Vivi, her candor while speaking of her country. The way her hands would come together and her head would bow. Blue hair would fall across her eyes until her face was hidden, hidden to hide tears from everyone else. It reminded Luffy of priestesses. Of course this confused him a little, because he had never seen priestess in his life, had he? 

Ace found himself really hating the desert, just, a lot. He might have been famous of his Logia type Devils Fruit letting him become fire at will, so the heat didn't bother him, not really, but still! The damn desert was just so finicky! There were too many reasons to stop, and he needed to keep moving. 

“I should have mentioned this! I’m sorry! Sand worms are common danger of the desert…” Vivi was apologizing to Usopp, the Strawhat sniper being held down on a flat rock by Zoro while his skin was sprayed with cactus oil and briefly ignited, courtesy of a touch from Ace. After each ignition a set of black crab-like… worms… would detach themselves from the sniper. The bites they left behind, Chopper bandaged, assuring a gibbering Usopp they wouldn’t leave scars. 

Usopp was the only one to suffer from them, and after this incident took precautions so that he would not present such an easy target. 

Chopper was worried about Zoro’s ankles, still freshly sutured only a few weeks prior. But Zoro would not let anyone look at his injuries, except Luffy. How the hell was he ever to tell Luffy no, about anything…. 

The swordsman stared ahead as they began to move again, Ace and Luffy standing on the lip of the dune they were all about to cross over. The two brothers smiling and laughing, hardly speaking any full sentences, they knew each other so well they no longer had to speak?  
It pissed Zoro off. 

He wasn’t sure *what about it exactly was pissing him off, just that Zoro wanted to stab Ace in the chest. The only problem was; Ace was Luffy’s brother. His captain’s Brother! But how long was he going to put up with this? 

“Nami has blackmail on all of us now, I think.” Luffy was giggling as Ace doubled up, dragging his hands in the sand. 

“Luffy.” Zoro came up on Luffy’s other side, Ace standing back up to lean against the rocks as the others made their slow way upwards. “Ace.” 

“Sullen, isn’t he?” Ace asked, flicking his chin in Zoro’s direction. 

Luffy’s not lost on the translation, but he also doesn’t care. Zoro’s not given him an answer yet, and it’s just wasted time now. Ace is here, and he’s not going to pass up that chance. “What is it, Zoro?” Luffy asks, his eyes fixed on Eyelashes, Nami and Vivi rocking steadily in the camel’s harness. 

Zoro kept his attention on Ace, he really had no choice. The deeply black orbs of the Luffy’s older brother's eyes tracked him up and down, and after that held a steady stare. Luffy’s heart beat slowly as the heat began to build. He wasn’t getting enough meat, already he could tell. And they had how many more days to go? He hoped they would kill some more of these big lizards… Zoro flinched. “I need to talk to you.” He said, one hand landing on Luffy’s wrist while he shook fuzzy nets from inside his brain. 

Ace blinked and pushed himself up off the rocks. “Crew stuff~” He sang at his little brother, cuffing him and rubbing down on his straw hat before wandering off to help the others as they struggled up the steep side of the dune. They still have fifteen miles to go today. 

“What is it, Zoro?” Luffy asked. 

“He’s your brother.” Zoro mutters, nearly the same moment that Luffy spoke. He did not mean to say it, but once begun, words have a way of being said between them. “Do I really have to be jealous of your brother?” the sick look on the swordsman’s face confuses Luffy, mostly because he didn’t understand what Zoro was talking about. He and Ace were Sake Brothers, yes… so… 

“Why would Zoro be jealous?” 

“How can you not get ‘why’, Luffy?” the hand on Zoro’s katana clamps down, tanned skin turned white and bloodless. Luffy just stares. 

“Yes or no?” The captain asks. “That’s all there is to it.” 

Zoro’s grinding his teeth. He knows his answer, and so does Luffy. He just has to say it. 

“Oi!” Zoro catches Sanji’s kick inches from his right ear, a vein standing out on his forehead. 

“Cook.” 

Sanji’s smirk is wide and cat-like, smoke wafting up from the cigarette held effortlessly between his lips. “Got to get moving.” He simpers. “Vivi says the hottest part of the day is coming up, don’t need our moss wilting.” 

A sword that is drawn by Zoro has varying speeds. They usually reflect his mood, no matter how much Self Control he claims to have. Luffy’s come to the conclusion that, while Zoro is strong, he is just a bit slower than he is. Luffy’s watched Zoro get slower, but that can’t be right? How could someone who trains like Zoro get slower and not quicker? 

Sanji’s flipped around into a handstand, pushing back off the ground to tumble on the air, dodging Zoro’s attacks with almost flippant ease. Sanji might be quicker than Zoro too, Luffy considers, but he’s not stronger. Not hardly. 

“Will you two…” A fist flies into the side of both the cook and swordsman, “knock it off!” Nami’s scowling face stares down at the two offenders for a moment before she raises her eyes. 

Luffy looks back at her. Nami. He had always known that he would and should have Nami as his nakama. She was precious to him, somehow, he’s not sure how. The memory of her with fever as he climbed that big snowy mountain with her on his back snakes into his thoughts, and he blinks. 

“Where are we going again?” Usopp moans, leaning heavily on a walking stick he was able to find at the last outcropping. There was a skeleton next to it, but he still took the stick, because the living still have legs. 

“Erumalu.” Vivi says. The wind was back, Luffy heard it rustling between the weaves of his straw hat. “After Erumalu is Yuba, and that is as far as we have to go.” The princess turns and takes Luffy’s hands. “After this is done, I want you all to come with me to Alburna, we’ll have a feast as my thank you!” 

Luffy smiled, laughed and smiled, because he knew he should. Even if he did not believe a word of what Vivi had just said, he knew he should. 

Zoro saw it, that unreal smile on Luffy’s face, and he wondered, because Ace was facing away, if the older brother had heard it. 

~  
Ace walked alongside his brother and his crew, and the woman who was princess of this country made of sand and catastrophe. He observed them, which was quite entertaining. 

“Oi! One mouthful!!” Nami’s voice cut through the air, Usopp and Luffy playing with the water supply worries the hell out of her. She was relieved when Zoro ripped the barrel away from those to other idiots before they spilled half of it. 

“I am sorry, Nami-san.” Vivi said, staring at her hands. Ace had one hand on Eyelashes' neck, letting the camel lead the way. “Sorry that this country is so hard.” 

Nami unfolded a map, it was a good one. Sanji had found an old trader that tracked caravans through the desert. It was a common job, apparently, so the maps were good. She knew roughly where they were, where they were going, how long it would take. She would get them there, no problem. How long? That was up to the rest of these idiots. “What are you talking about?” 

Vivi blinked. “What?” 

“This country is hard?” Nami echoed, considering it briefly before she smiled. “This country is wonderful.” She said, tracking her finger over a ridge of dunes inked in black. It would take a while, maybe half a day of walking, but they would be protected from the storm ridge detailed on the map. She had tried this the last time they came near an unexposed place, rounding the storm zones, because the maps detailed them like tides. Sandstorms so common that you could count on them like clockwork. “Yours is a sea of sand, and it has periods of storm.” She told Vivi, “There is nothing ‘hard’ about that.”


	2. Don't Do Anything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The only reason he is there. Not really brothers?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece. That honor belongs to Eiichiro Oda.

Nanohana had reminded Ace of any other Port Town, except that it was hot and dusty. He had not expected anything different of the country like the others did. His first sight of Erumalu made him stare. 

“Mysteriously, the connections to every water source were cut.” Vivi told them, the hand in front of her clasped a handful of Nami’s robe. The redhead could feel her shaking from where their legs met on the saddle. 

Usopp and Chopper were having the worst of the heat, toiling along, Chopper was actually being towed along by Zoro. Each of them paused to observe the dead town of Erumalu, which only that last year, according to Vivi, had been alive and prosperous. 

Luffy was first down the hill, and Ace watched him go. Sanji took hold of Eyelashes' other rein debating weather or not to follow their captain. 

“You know, I’ve been wondering.” The flicking of a lighter told the Logia that the Strawhat cook had lit his cigarette. “Is Luffy the highest ranking pirate here?” 

Nami leaned over the leather straps of the saddle. “I was wondering that too.” She cooed, her sweating face still looked dangerously predatory when she bent it in Ace’s direction. 

“Don’t really know how to answer that.” He admitted, looking over his shoulder to see Zoro, Usopp, and Chopper begin their slow way towards them, but still some ways away. “Luffy's a captain, so, I suppose he is.” 

“You’re a commander, aren’t you?” Nami asked, trying to remember. “And you’re older than him.” 

In the distance Ace could see his brother, all dressed in that dark burgundy robe-thing so that he didn’t catch on fire in the sun. Ace had on a black robe, and he laughed at the irony of it all. “Why do you want to know?” 

“Because.” Sanji blew out a stream of yellow smoke into the air. “Just taking count of how many bad-asses we have on this little hiking trip.

“Please tell me you know how to use a compass?” Nami suddenly asked, her face stretched, bracing herself for Luffy’s brother to say he had about as good of a sense of direction as Zoro. 

“Do I? -What? Of *course I know how to use a compass!” 

Sanji laughed as Ace continued to sputter as if the very idea was insulting; Nami explaining that there must be lots of pirates that can’t walk a straight line. 

“Only if they’re drunk!” the three of them burst out laughing, even Vivi had her hands over her mouth, her shoulders shaking. “What idiot doesn’t know how to use a compass?” 

“Oi, Zoro!” Usopp’s voice snapped like a whip through the air, echoing back across the sand during a brief moment of wind-change. Everyone’s laughter died except for Ace’s. The Logia’s voice suddenly very small before he fell silent. 

The Strawhat swordsman still had the rope for Chopper’s sled in his hand, the other resting firmly on Wado Ichimonji. He had no expression on his face in the least, like he had been struck to stone, and he barely breathed. Usopp waved his hand in front of Zoro’s nose. Nothing happened. “Oi!” 

Luffy had turned at the sound of Usopp’s voice, brought right to him on the wind he still didn't fully trust. He could see Zoro next to the sniper... What? spacing out? The rubber man turned and inhaled a long breath. “ZZOoorrrooO!”

Zoro blinked and looked towards his captain. 

“Come oonnn!” Luffy whined, stamping one foot into the sand and getting it stuck. 

Luffy tried to pull at his leg before he started struggling and… was he… yes… he was *sinking into the sand. Zoro’s mouth fell open when within about eleven seconds Luffy was completely buried. 

“Luffy!” everyone shouted at once, because they had all been watching. 

“I’m sorry!” Vivi whispered. “Quicksand is one of the many dangers of the Desert.” 

Nami groaned into her folded arms as Zoro, Ace, Sanji, Usopp, and Chopper all but fell down the side of the dune to get to where Luffy was buried. She pulled out her map and traced the line of where Luffy had gone, and sure enough. “It’s not your fault, Vivi.” Nami assured her, watching as the boys made their way over. Usopp tied a rope around Zoro’s waist before he reached down to take hold of Luffy’s hand. He wasn’t far down, so only half of Zoro’s white shirt was stained red from the mixture of sand and clay and water. 

Nami leaned over the edge of the saddle, the map still in her hands. “Captain should have kept to the rout his Navigator chooses!” she called, sticking out her tongue. Vivi laughs at that, and that’s enough reason for Nami to keep doing it. Eyelashes begins to walk along the dune’s natural ridgeline, just like camels do, and Nami folded the map against her chest, noises of glee and contentment following. 

~  
The problem with a country with no water. The real problem with a country with no goddamn water, is there isn’t any way to really get clean! Zoro had shaken out his shirt about a thousand times since he’d fished Luffy out of the quicksand. There was no reason to still feel itchy from it! 

“I honestly never thought I would hear you say that?” Sanji gaped at Zoro, in every danger of letting his lit cigarette fall from between his lips. 

“Say what?” Zoro growled as he reached to scratch across his chest one more time. 

“That you wanted to take a bath.” Leering magnificently, Sanji ducked under the fist that would have caught him in the ear. 

“Stop wasting your energy!” Nami shouted, though it wasn’t enough to make them settle down. 

Luffy kept shaking his head, great chunks of clay and loose sand falling out of his hair every now and then. He kept digging one finger into his ear and picking at his heavily encrusted robe. Nami didn’t know why he wasn’t uncomfortable. Zoro was practically peeling off his own skin, Luffy on the other hand, only seemed mildly inconvenienced, still talking and laughing with his brother as they stuck close to the camel. 

After seeing Erumalu from that high ridge, Usopp figured they’d be stopping soon. Words could not describe the deep betrayal the Strawhat Sniper felt when Nami lead them instead far the side, refusing to cross the open expanse of desert in favor of this wandering track up and along the dunes. They would not reach their destination for another six grueling hours. 

~

“We still have about an hour of daylight, we need to have camp set up by then.” Nami was speaking aloud to herself as she and Vivi got down off Eyelashes. She stroked the perverted camel’s chin, making the creature croon and nuzzle into the navigator’s shoulder. 

“Damn camel, only letting ladies ride.” Usopp slid down the side of some stone wall that had all but mostly deteriorated in the heat and high winds. 

“Nami-san!” Sanji still had the energy to do that! Luffy watched his cook offer Nami water, how she refused it, shaking her head before unfurling the map she’d used to get them there. She really was something. Sanji seemed to burst apart when Nami leaned in to place a kiss on his cheek, thanking him for buying her the map. 

“Luffy.” Zoro was standing at his captain’s shoulder, inclining his head. 

Following his swordsman away from the others and under the shadow of a crumbling building, Luffy removed his heavy robe, the air and shade feeling good on his ichy skin. Zoro stood against the wall, every now and then reaching up to scratch vigorously at a spot on either his chest or back. 

“Zoro need help?” Luffy giggled, he is made of rubber, so it is no problem for him to scratch his own back, but he is always reminded that normal people aren’t quite so lucky. Luffy’s untucked Zoro’s shirt from his hamaraki and reached both hands up along the older man's bare back before his first mate can answer. 

“Oi.” nails raking across his sweat-sandy skin should not feel as good as it does, but Luffy’s hands are just as sweaty and sandy as he is. 

“Luffy!” Nami’s voice cut over them on the air. 

It’s time to set up camp.

Luffy presses his palm hard over Zoro’s aching back, trailing down along his side before re-tucking his shirt into the green waistband his swordsman always wears. He turns to leave. 

“Sencho.” 

Luffy pauses, listening to another peal of his name from Nami. 

For a few moments Zoro doesn’t speak, and Nami calls a third time. “I don’t like it.” Finally falls from the older man’s lips. His green eyes focused on the broken wall in front of him. “I just don’t!” 

Luffy watches as Zoro kicks out, breaking off a dried out brick in front of him. 

“Just don’t do anything, okay?” 

“Zoro.” Luffy’s not able to look at him, and he turns. So many things flash across Luffy’s brain, that he momentarily cannot hear the wind. What did this mean? Zoro wasn’t saying yes or no to his question, and now he’s not supposed to do anything? What did that even mean? He had to do something, they were here to beat up a shichibukai! 

“LUFFY!” Nami’s shrill anger rippled through Luffy’s swirling psyche and he's startled into a run. He's made her wait too long. 

~  
“Four cooks?” Sanji could just imagine the crowd that four steady cooks would have to provide for. That’s how many the Whitebeards had on the flagship? How enormous was the galleon where Ace lived as Second Division Commander? 

“Yea…” Ace’s laughter suddenly seemed to flicker, his freckled cheeks more somber than before, but the ghost of a smile remained. 

It wouldn’t fool Sanji. 

“Oi,” he shoved a tent pole at Ace, just shy of poking him in the ribs. “What’s with that look?” 

“What look?” Ace takes the poles, fitting a tent he could do in his sleep. Sometimes did. 

Sanji scoffed, propping up the side Ace was working on with his foot, helping with leverage. “You really are a lot alike, you and your brother.” 

Ace chuckled. “Would you believe me if I told you we aren’t?” 

“Eh?” 

Just in front of them Luffy’s running past, and seeing Ace he slows down, holding onto a rock for himself to keep momentum. “Ace!” 

“Oi, Lu!” 

“Where’s Nami?” 

Ace points a thumb over his shoulder, and a second later Luffy’s out of sight. “We have different parents. We’re sake brothers.” 

“Sake?” Sanji considers, handing over another tent pole, his attention elsewhere, and he wonders if Ace has heard it too. 

“We’re brothers, because we choose to be.” Ace gave no sign of having heard anything, nailing down the catch-line so that the tents would not be blown away. “So how did you come across my little brother, eh?” he asked, taking another pole from Sanji. 

“Ah, he shot a cannonball into my boss’ restaurant.” Sanji recalled, grinning. 

“Boss?” 

“Shitty Old Man.” 

“Ahahaha!” 

~  
Zoro stood on the other side of the wall, where he could hear Ace and Sanji talking. Ace and Luffy were not blood related? Did that make it better or worse? What the fuck is a Sake Brother? 

“Zoro!” Nami snapped her fingers under the swordsman’s nose about eight times, shouting in his face before he realized that she was trying to talk to him. 

“Wh-what, oh, sure.” He needed to go looking for fuel. Not all that difficult surrounded by the dried out ruins of whatever town they had found themselves. They had passed through several, though he hasn’t been able to remember the names of them. Nami tried to show him where they were a few times, but he can’t read maps, never could. Ace’s voice echoed in his ears, ‘what idiot doesn’t know how to use a compass?’ Zoro. That’s what kind of an idiot gets lost all the time. 

He sighed, walking up the cobbled track in search of old broken door frames or withered out foliage. Most of the houses were falling in. There hadn’t been people there for at least ten years, so everything was up for grabs. Towns get that way after a while. It was nothing new to him. 

“So.” 

Zoro damn near fell out of his skin. Well at least it would stop itching. Glaring back at the Logia hanging upside-down on the wall in front of him, Zoro took a long breath. This was Luffy’s… Luffy’s what? Brother? He just told the damn cook he wasn’t… so what was he? 

“You really do look as menacing as they say.” Ace chuckled, putting his hands behind his head. “You just sort of have that face, huh?” 

“What do you want?” Zoro hadn’t meant for that to sound as deadly or dripping with malice either, but since he already said it… 

“Looking for a man. That’s all.” Ace said, lifting one foot at a time to test the wall he was dangling from. “Killed a nakama and ran, stole from us too, but who’s counting now.” 

“You've got time to visit long lost brothers?” 

“Rumor put that man on this island, it’s the only reason I’m here.” 

~  
That evening when the sun went down there were four tents between seven people, doubling up in them was difficult, because they were really only meant for one. Nami decided the sleeping arrangements, Ace had found out, due to some altercation between Luffy and half the crew going missing for three days otherwise. He didn’t quite understand, but agreed that he would have one of the tents to himself. In the others were Luffy and Zoro, Vivi and Nami, and in the last tent Sanji, Usopp, and Chopper. 

“Chopper’s small, so he can bunk in with the other two, and you can have your own, Ace.” Nami said casually, tracing lines on her map with one finger. Vivi sat across from her on a rock and watched her progress. 

“Don’t mention it.” She said offhandedly, reaching for a compass. 

Zoro was leaned up against a broken wall with an open sake bottle in his hands, the fire in front of him. Luffy was chewing on an enormous piece of barbequed lizard next to him. 

“Oi, Luffy?” he asked as the others discussed routs and chores and things. “You grew up with your brother, since you were born?” 

Luffy swallowed, “No, I was six before I met Ace.” 

“So he’s not your brother?” 

“He is.” 

“You have the same mom and dad?” 

“No.” 

“Then he’s not your brother.” 

Luffy sets his barbeque down on a rock next to them and rolls over so that his head rests on Zoro’s thigh. “Ace is my brother.” He repeated. 

Zoro hated this. Hated Luffy’s goddamn generalization. “Do you love him?” 

“Of course I do.” 

He had not wanted Luffy to say it like that. So easily and, so solid. 

*CLANg! ClaNG! CLAnG!* 

“Dinner you shitheads!!” Sanji shouts right next to Zoro’s ear as he’s whacking two sauce pans together. 

“Damn Cook!” 

“Obvious Swordsman.”


	3. Yes and No

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luffy and Ace both get an answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating goes up starting now, just going to make it explicit. Take care of your eyes, folks. 
> 
> I do not own One Piece. That honor belongs to Eiichiro Oda.

Zoro was really ready to kill somebody, really – really – really ready to kill somebody. Just around the next outcropping there might be an enemy! Oh, nope, just more sand… 

“Look on the bright side, Marimo.” Sanji swung his cookpot over one shoulder, that and a dozen different spoons all clattering together. The cook went nowhere without his ring of spoons. They had all gone to their own personal supplies since Luffy had lost them the bulk of their baggage… It was some kind of curse that followed Luffy around sometimes, how the man had managed to let their stuff get taken by a bunch of fucking thief *birds in the *desert? What the hell?! 

“What bright side is that?” 

The cook thought for a moment, making a meal out of getting a cigarette out of his pack, reaching for his lighter and adjusting backpack straps across slender shoulders. It was hot. Man, was it hot. They’d been walking for five days so far, only staying in Erumalu for one night. Some ways away Vivi and Nami were helping each other aboard Eyelashes. Ace was with them, always polite to the ladies. Ace had even helped Vivi burry the bones she found in that old dried up town that so recently had been just as live as the Port Town had been. Luffy’s brother now helped Nami up onto the camel, and she paused to kiss his freckled cheek. Sanji’s cheek twinged, and Zoro saw it, following back the line of the cook’s eyes to land on Ace. Luffy had come rocking up out of nowhere, snaking arms and legs around his older brother so that he clung to his back. Both in laughter. 

The Strawhat cook swallowed. They were all getting a little on edge, and Zoro had been on edge the longest. The cook could rely on him to snap first, just as he could rely on him to be the one to follow, after Luffy, of course. 

“Do you think…?” Zoro let out a long breath, turning back towards the cook. “Do you think they’re lovers?” 

Sanji blinked at Zoro for a minute. “Luffy’s not into guys. Luffy’s not into anything.” He said, taking a long drag from his cigarette. 

“Yes, he is.” 

Coughing this time. Sanji damn nearly inhaled his smoke, paper and all. “What?”

“Luffy’s definitely into guys. So do you think they could have been lovers?” 

“Let me get this right, you think Ace is into guys?” Sanji considered, peering back over at the very man in question. Ace’s face was shiny with sweat, cowboy hat pulled halfway down his forehead with the string dangling loosely under his chin. Those two theatrical faces on the brim. There was a little stubble on the older man's jaw, and that was new. Without water he wasn’t shaving. None of them were. The only one not growing any facial hair besides the girls was Luffy. 

“Are you checking him out?” Zoro asked, slapping his palm to his forehead. 

Sanji chortled. “Does that bother you, Precious Vegetable? You just asked if he was his own brother’s lover.” He turned a smirk towards the swordsman, flashing white teeth in a mischievous smile. “Unless you wanted him for yourself?” 

Heat builds on Zoro’s cheeks, and he’s amazed he can feel any warmer. “Keep a secret?” he asks Sanji. 

The cook stares. Zoro wants him to keep a secret, what the fuck does he take him for? “Probably not.” He says, spitting a little sand from between his teeth while they watched Luffy and Ace wrestle each other between Eyelashes’ legs. Usopp and Chopper taking cover behind a boulder. “Still want to tell me?” 

Zoro shook his head, a smile on his lips. He can’t trust Sanji with something so boring as a secret, the damn cook. That’s the arrangement they had. 

“Oi!” Sanji’s on his way over to the others, just as Zoro should be. The general consensus was to make their way northwards to Yuba. That is where the rebels are, apparently, and after that they’ll figure out the next lap. 

Ace was holding the reins up, adjusting his robe when Sanji slipped between him and the camel, Eyelashes backed instinctively away from the two. “Might I have a word with you?” Sanji purred next to Ace’s cheek, the older man still struggling against his brother’s ironclad grip pinning himself to his back. 

“I suppose.” He managed to slip Luffy off, though at the risk of losing one of his gloves in the process. 

“Just be a second, captain.” Sanji ruffled Luffy’s hair as he sauntered passed with Ace at his shoulder. 

Luffy watched his brother’s back walk away with Sanji. The cook’s blond hair moving about over the fringe of what was a white set of robes, but had now had taken on the hew of the desert. Luffy’s red and purple robes had also blended to the desert some, but not like Sanji’s coat had. Of course being jealous of a coat was okay, Luffy considered, because he couldn’t let himself be jealous of a nakama.

~  
Sanji led Ace around a set of stone walls that had nearly completely crumbed away, the other’s out of earshot. An added bonus was that there was shade, it had just begun to get warm again that day. “So you and Luffy?” Sanji asks, backing Ace up against the wall. “I heard you might be lovers?” 

“Who said that.” 

“Does it matter?” 

“Maybe.” 

“So it’s true.” 

Sanji’s elbow had dug upwards under Ace’s chin the entire time. It was amusing to the Logia, that Sanji would choose to muscle him around. He was struck, then, how weak his little brother must be. “It’s true.” 

All the feeling went out of Ace all at once, Sanji stepping back. He had thought he would have to try a little harder to get the answers he wanted. Ace lowered himself to his knees. “Luffy and I… Sabo…” 

“Are you still lovers?” Sanji asked, kneeling down into Ace’s space. 

“I have a lover.” Ace tells Sanji, yet still nuzzles in close to the blonde’s ear. 

A hand came forward to land on the inside of Sanji’s thigh, tempting waves of heat to gather, echoing along tight cords of muscle. “So I shouldn’t do this.” the cook asks.

Ace chuckles, fingers trailing upwards so that the blonde is obliged to open his knees. Of which he does oblige, showing off flexibility sufficient to bring their lips together. 

Sanji’s slow fluid motions paused every now and then, an offer for either Ace’s rejection or retreat – but none came. Ace fell into Sanji like a diver to water, and he reveled in him briefly, before settling himself back against the rock, his pupils blown wide, panting this time for thrill instead of heat. “Marco would not mind.” 

“That the name of your lover?” 

“He’s a blonde too.” 

“So you only want me for my looks?” 

“What do you want me for?” Ace contested, close to Sanji for a few moments, his arms held apart to allow Sanji’s consideration. He could come up with nothing, nothing that he could do just twenty solid feet from the rest of his nakama. Some things had to be behind doors and walls, and about a million yards of concrete. 

“I want you for about 4 hours.” 

“Six, and I’ll consider.” 

“Ten, if you think you can take it.” 

“I know I can take it, can you?” 

“OIII!” Sanji jumped to his feet so fast he jumped about a foot into the air after that. Nami was staring down at the two of them, legs laced up with fingers and palms and whispers. 

“Nami-san, I was.. we…” 

Nami’s fist clamped down into Sanji’s tie and she yanked him down. “I don’t blame you Ace, because you’re not an imbecile.” She explained as Ace shuffles his feet out of her way. “So,” and she whispers into Sanji’s ear. “A word for the one I do blame. Vivi needs to stop this rebellion. I can get her there alive, and I intend to do it.” Nami shared a heavy look with the cook, it’s a look he’d been seeing more of since Vivi had joined them on the Merry. “Don’t think for a second that I won’t leave you behind.” The Strawhat Navigator stalked away from Sanji and Ace, accepting the help up onto Eyelashes from Zoro before they turned to leave. 

~  
The rest of the day Sanji walked near the back, Ace and Luffy on either side of Eyelashes and the girls. Zoro and Usopp behind them, Zoro was still dragging Chopper along behind him. 

“When did Ace eat a devil fruit?” Luffy asked as he kicked at the sand. There was nothing to do but walk, and everyone could tell Luffy had gotten bored. 

“About three days into the Grand Line.” Ace said, tilting his hat to shade more of the sun. 

“How’d you get it?” Nami asked, “Did you find it growing?” 

Ace smiled. “Just showed up, one day, I suppose. I don’t remember that day too well.” He said, grinning sheepishly. 

Luffy kicked at the dune, a spray of sand wafting out behind, while he glared at his brother for lying. He did remember. “Talk to me, Ace!”

Zoro looked up at the sound of Luffy’s whining, he could see him kick the sand and shout something across at his brother. A family squabble? Zoro half hoped that it would be. 

“What’s so funny?” Usopp asked, panting for the heat, even the man’s nose was wilting. 

“It’s nothing Usopp, don’t waste your energy. How’re you doing, Chopper?” he called over his shoulder at the despondent reindeer. Chopper made a brief and pitiful noise of assurance, it was all he could do most of the time, and Zoro left him to it. 

“Tell you what?” Ace shot back at his brother after a mouthful of water. “Or have you missed me that much?” 

Luffy swallowed, eyes forward along the open sand. “Missed Ace, but it’s different now.” 

“The only thing that’s different is that it’s not different. Just give me an answer already, Lu.” 

“Can’t do that.” 

Ace shook his head, taking his brother’s hand and interlacing fingers as they rested palms on Eyelashes’ neck. Ace knew Luffy couldn’t answer him, because his first mate had not answered Luffy. It was going to be a long journey, if they were going to go on like this. 

But, there was the Blonde. Whitebeard Second Division Commander and the Strawhat Chef? A smile formed on the freckled man’s face. 

Luffy saw the smile, he recognized it. 

“I don’t need your permission, do I?” Ace asked, squeezing his little brother’s hand. 

“No.” Luffy said, dragging the word up painfully out of his chest. 

Ace rubbed the back of Luffy’s fingers, the way he used to when Luffy would seem upset. They continued on. It would be 3 hours of pale sand with nothing to break the multitude but stray cactus before they came to another huddled grouping of dry, broken buildings. Some of the building had roofs left, and the nearly buried shop was stocked with everything except food and water. 

It was Nami’s idea to stay in the chapel. It was the strongest building still standing. The two girls sat and whispered about the history of it for fifteen minutes when Luffy suddenly realized he’d been standing there just watching them. He shook himself and went to share food with the others. 

“Water won’t last another six days.” Zoro was telling Nami, stoppering his flask after having refilled it. 

“It’s going to have to.” The Strawhat navigator tossed a fill canteen at Luffy as he joined them around the water barrels. “We’re making good time, as long as we don’t get sidetracked we’ll be in Yuba this time tomorrow and all our problems will be solved.” 

“That won’t happen.” Luffy said, staring at the canteen Nami’s just given him. The wind whistled around the door leading to the outside. It’s another sandstorm, like clockwork. Luffy listens and smells the air, he doesn’t like it. He doesn’t know why he doesn’t like it, but he knows he doesn’t. 

Zoro listens to the whistling around the chapel, the wind finding little nooks and gullies in the carved stone walls to change the pitch of its own voice. It was melodic, but also, something else – a sort of unnatural use of nature that sends ripples through the earth. 

~  
Dinner that night was rock roasted purple lizard, and these weird spongy mushroom things better just swallowing than trying to chew. Sanji made it taste like a feast with the spices and back-up ingredients he had on him. Rationing water was the hardest part. Luffy kept spilling, no matter what he did. That was what caused him to be struggling with the water barrel when Zoro found him. 

“Need help?” Zoro teased, leaning on a barrel opposite. 

His captain threw him a very dirty look as a few more drops slipped from the tap onto the parched concrete before Luffy managed to get the latch closed. Standing back he found himself with his back against the wall, one of Zoro’s palms resting on either side of him. “Zoro.” 

“Yes.” Zoro says slowly and clearly, inches from Luffy’s mouth, he can taste the other man on the air. Hell, they could all smell each other, but because Luffy was Luffy and Zoro was Zoro, neither of them cared in the slightest.

“Zoro’s saying yes.” Luffy’s grinning now, resting his own hands on his swordsman’s hips. 

“Yes.” The first mate says again, for good measure. 

Luffy’s wrapped himself around Zoro about a dozen times, laughing all the while as Zoro stumbles backwards in the attempt to remove himself from his rubber captain. Deciding that roughhousing near the water barrels would not be a good idea Zoro hops and staggers across the landing until he’s back near the front of the chapel with the rest of their nakama. Ace looks like he’s going to bust a gut laughing at Luffy all wrapped around the green haired pirate like that, Sanji too, he’s let his cigarette go out as he slaps his thigh over and over again. 

“Oh! Ace!” Luffy calls suddenly, Zoro trying to pry himself free with a piece of broken furniture. 

Ace is still wiping tears from his eyes. “Yes, Lu? What is it?” 

“No.” Luffy said. 

Sanji looked between the brothers, Ace’s face particular. The Logia seemed to be doing some quick, and dare he say it, painful thinking. “I've never seen anyone think like Luffy.” Sanji scoffed, lighting a match off Ace’s black stubble. 

Without another word Luffy’s unwound himself from Zoro and hurtled off to where Nami and Vivi are huddled around maps on the open second floor landing. The swordsman can see his captain talking fast, but he can’t read lips, and hasn’t got a clue what they’re saying. 

“Well, what about you, Cook Sanji?” Ace inquires, leaning back from having finished eating. 

Zoro’s eyes go wide as he sees the damn cook twirl that stupid excuse of a goatee he’s grown since they’ve all been out of water. The damn cook is considering Ace’s offer?

“You can’t call me ‘Cook Sanji’, like it’s my name, Mr. My-Captain’s-Brother.”

Ace chuckled at that, opening his coat and putting it aside. What with the eight of them with a good fire going in the chapel, it was warmer than usual night for them. Ace was looking forward to lounging without all his clothes on, maybe none of them? If Sanji didn’t mind. Zoro seemed to mind, though. Ace smirked. 

“You want to join us until Luffy gets back,” the Logia offered Zoro, “He’s probably going to take a minute.” 

“Oi, oi!” Sanji half mocked as he wound one hand around Ace's broad shoulder, “Luffy better come get you quick.” 

The blonde relocated himself to the couch where Ace was lying, opening up a spot for Zoro to sit, thoroughly eliminating any semblance of an “I-Didn’t-See-That-And-I-Can-Still-Convince-Myself-I-Didn’t-So-There!” zone. 

That zone was pretty important for Zoro. 

“So, how much experience do you have, Zoro?” Ace asked, the slide of Sanji’s legs against his might have contributed, but he wanted to know. “You’re going to be wrapping up with my little brother, so, spill. 

Sanji’s slender fingers, honed and strong for the purposes of cooking, rubbed their way into Ace’s back, and he keened forward, sending a spasm of release along the left side of Ace's shoulder. 

“Holy shit!” The older one gasped. “Warn a man.” 

“You didn’t like it?” Sanji asked, rotating another set of constricted muscle, enough to crack Ace’s spine echoing across the room. 

“Fuck!” 

Zoro smiled, because Ace was smiling, and because Sanji was beside himself prodding into Ace’s back like that. 

“Oi!” Luffy called down from where Nami was still hanging onto his shoulder and lecturing him. 

Zoro got up, taking a deep breath into his lungs. He was not going pale, he wasn't... 

“Oi, oi?” Ace asked, holding Sanji’s wrist away for a moment. 

“Luffy’s your first?” 

Zoro gave a sharp nod.

Sanji’s jaw fell open. “You’re a virgin?” he gasps, Zoro is grateful he didn’t yell something like that. 

“It’s never been, you know, important.” 

Sanji’s mouth was still open, and he thought about that… and “No. no. No, I am pretty sure, Zoro, that in EVERY case in the whole goddamn world that *IT* has been pretty shitty important.”

“Go easy.” Ace cooed, directing Sanji’s attention away from Zoro, who’s attention should have been directed elsewhere, and Ace pointed for him. 

“Oi, comm’on Zoro!”


	4. Hadn't thought of 'that'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ace/Sanji

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece. That honor belongs to Eiichiro Oda.

Luffy led Zoro away, which was fine by Ace, and Sanji did not seem to mind. They had the enormity of the lower level of the chapel to themselves because everyone else was on the upper levels where it was slightly warmer, to sleep. 

Sanji’s long legs were wrapped up with Ace’s, both men still wearing their shoes and clothes, the only thing Ace had taken off was his robe, the other man still wearing his. 

“Is this a ‘yes’. Strawhat Cook?” Ace asks, rubbing the globe of his ass over Sanji’s already painfully hard erection. 

The blonde’s eyes roll back, Ace knew that they would. “I have a name, as-asshole.” He bucked back, sliding a hand forward to pull, using Ace’s thick belt for leverage. “You can call me Sanji.” 

“Oh?” Ace’s flexibility was relative, him being a Logia type. He didn’t technically have a body to improve in that way. If he needed to be bent over backwards, his body would make that happen. The man must have been in wonderful shape when he had eaten his fruit, the way he could slide and twists and rub himself properly against another human body like that. 

Sanji held the other man to him, sharply exhaling for the dry motions, but Ace was still waiting for Sanji’s answer, and he’d not truly begin until he got it. 

“Yes or no?” He prompted, burying his lips behind Sanji’s ear, nuzzling into silken blonde locks. Ace breathed in the scent of the cook, spices and sweat and stale tobacco. The combination of them all was erotic. His body nearly tingling for this opportunity. “Sanji.” 

“Fuck, yes.” 

**

Luffy pushed open the door to some building, about a quarter mile from where the chapel was. It scraped against the floor, sand and rocks littering the entrance, but the inside was clean and ordered, and… stocked? It was a bar! 

“Woohoo!” Luffy rushed forward, taking bottles from the shelf. There were a lot of empties, but there were also many which still contained booze. Old booze, but still booze. “Nami said there might be a few bottles left.” 

Zoro sat down in the tall stool in front of the counter, Luffy on the other side where the tender would usually be. “Since you’re there.” Zoro said, leaning forward on his hand. “Mind if I order?” 

Luffy grinned, unhinging a tall bottle with a silver label from the shelf. Zoro had been drinking this brand on the last island, he was sure of it. He was sure he liked it. The bottle was also full, miraculously unopened. Luffy turned and placed the sake on the counter. “Zoro doesn’t need to order.” 

Pouring sake for him and Zoro, and they drink. Luffy’d done this before too, he wasn’t sure Zoro had ever, but he was getting to think that Zoro hadn’t, because he was slowly freaking out. Luffy could always tell. He had hoped the sake would calm him down, but it didn’t seem to be working. Zoro kept twitching whenever Luffy would make a move. The captain responded to this by sitting on his own barstool, kicking his legs and waiting for Zoro’s permission to come nearer. Zoro knew he had all the time in the world, but that just made him angrier. He sighed heavily, slamming down and shattering an innocent shot glass because he was so frustrated he couldn’t hold still. 

Luffy watched, just watched, as Zoro hung his head over the next drink in front of him. After a moment Zoro drank that shot, and before he had even swallowed it he reached for the bottle. He looked like a man dying of thirst, but this was not water he was drinking, and Luffy knew that too. 

“Oi.” Luffy’s arms wrapped around Zoro’s shoulders, taking hold of the sake, of which there was not much left, and placing it back down on the bar before he placed both hands on his first mate’s shoulders. “Why’s Zoro angry?” 

“I don’t know.” Zoro said, shrugging repeatedly at having his captain's hands on him until Luffy succeeded in finding a good spot to touch, and he leaned forward on the bar. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” 

“Baka. That’s because there’s nothing wrong with Zoro.” Having his first mate begin to relax gives Luffy a little high, a moment of understanding that no one can do this. Zoro just doesn’t calm down on command. It made him feel special. 

Zoro allowed Luffy to trail his hands under his clothes, push up his shirt until he had removed it. Luffy paused here to admire. Zoro’s tanned skin almost glowed, dust and sand sticking to him like bits of rust not yet cleaned from the blade underneath. And Zoro was a blade, or chiseled from stone. A lifetime of training has already developed the swordsman’s frame, and he spends hours a day maintaining what he’s built up. Luffy’s fingers dip and tuck into the groves of Zoro’s back, practically vibrating with anticipation. 

Luffy turns Zoro on the barstool until the swordsman’s back is propped against the counter instead of his chest, stepping into his space between splayed legs at the same moment. 

“Luffy.”

“Zoro’s gonna relax.” The captain coos, almost purrs. 

For a single lifetime, or that’s how Zoro would describe it later, Luffy’s lips met his. It was the first kiss the swordsman had ever received, and also the first he reciprocated. Luffy focused on slow movements, at first, until he was sure that his first mate wasn’t about to throw him off. Deepening the kiss from there Luffy brought his arms down, worrying down the older man’s exposed torso. Luffy’s hands traced gently over the scar that stretched across Zoro’s chest. That was his pride, and also Luffy’s. His swordsman, who carried a signed dream, and one day Zoro would stand at the top, Luffy was sure of that too. 

Luffy bent back his wrist, reaching into the folds of Zoro’s hamaraki when the swordsman let out a low whine, his hands coming up, but he didn’t know what to do with them, Luffy could tell. The raven haired captain slicked his tongue along his swordsman’s chapped lower lip, gently pecking at the sides of his mouth before attacking the man, encouraging Zoro to part his lips to let him… taste. 

~  
Sanji can remember that last time he was in bed with a man like Ace, can remember it clear as day. Men like Ace can go for hours – can go for days if they want to. Recovering in seconds, and always ready for the next round. But they were also a challenge, of who can get the other off more times, and the quality of those times. Sanji was just like Ace, after all. 

“What about here?” Ace’s thumbs drove deeply into the soft flesh just above the blonde’s left hip. A keening sound escaping Sanji’s lips as he licked them, opposite leg wrapping desperately around the Logia’s hips. 

Ace grinned, inches away from Sanji’s milk-white skin. He was smooth, like glass, with corded muscle so tightly spun that it could barely be seen. Fuck, but it could be felt though. Ace traced the great long lines of raw strength that existed throughout the cook’s arms and legs, across his pectorals and abdomen, even around his belly towards the back. “How is someone so thin, so solid?” He breathed while finishing unbuttoning the shirt Sanji had been wearing for the last five days. His hand fell between the folds of fabric, course skin pushing aside whatever expensive North Blue cotton made up Sanji’s shirts. 

“Just lucky, I suppose.” The blond answers, deftly unbuttoning Ace’s shorts before he slides them down legs so toned and beautiful that Sanji momentarily stops breathing. 

Stripping each other takes an obscenely long time, passing hands over each other as clothing is shed, both holding back for the other to go first. When Ace finally realizes that, he leans forward, pressing their bodies together. “I thought you’d just initiate everything, coming on to me first.” 

“Where’s the fun in that?” Sanji allowed Ace to hold his wrists down, he didn’t mind, it kept his hands protected, and it was turning Ace on. “And since I know you love to win.” A roll of lithe hips along Ace’s naked arousal reminded him. “Commander, Portgus D. Ace.” 

~  
Zoro’s palms rested on the half warm skin, half denim that was Luffy’s hips. Luffy felt familiar, the way his bones and rubber muscles feel so much differently to any normal person. Luffy’s touching him. What? He’s really letting Luffy touch him? 

The swordsman jerks back, and Luffy breaks the kiss. Standing back away from Zoro, the other man takes in a deep breath, letting it out in badly concealed aggravation. 

Luffy just watches, waiting. “ ‘know Zoro’s a virgin.” He says, matter of fact-ly from behind the brim of his hat. Zoro can’t see his captain's eyes. He hates that, when Luffy finds it necessary to hide his face, because he’s not sure of the answer he's going to get, and he’s too fucking proud to let people see him truly surprised. He sees him doing it to others, and when Luffy does that to him... 

“Che’. I’m not a virgin.” Zoro reaches for the remainder of the sake, taking it down his throat in a few long gulps. “I've got plenty of ‘experience’.” He says, staring at the now-empty bottle. 

Luffy’s quiet. He hadn’t considered this. 

Zoro just puts down the empty sake bottle before burying his face in his hands. 

~  
Ace’s restraining of Sanji lasted only long enough for Sanji to show the other man just how flexible he can be. A few well thought out rotations of his hips, legs, and shoulders, coupled with a rolling of his lower spine, and socket himself to the left a little…. 

The Logia hadn’t moved, just watched in awe as Sanji literally wiggled himself out from under him. Sliding all of that slender, solid heat down him, and the slow kiss against the bulge of his pants just before standing up, circling the couch in amusement of what must have been something to see on Ace's face. “I want you, on your knees, in front of me, right now.” 

“Think you can get me to my knees?” Sanji asked, leaning against the back of the sofa while Ace seemed frozen where he was. 

Ace’s teeth glinted in the low light of the fire. Sanji was drawn to them. Like looking up at the stars every night, but it was Ace. It, was…

“Oi!!” Sanji flinched, ducking behind the sofa. Ace had nowhere to go, so he just looked up as the Strawhat Navigator and blushing princess Vivi waved at them from their spot on the second level. “We can’t sleep, so we thought we’d just stay up and watch the floor show.” Nami giggled. Ace could hear the blonde gasping behind the cushions. 

He smiled. “Have you been enjoying the show?” Ace called up to Nami and Vivi, stretching his arms behind his head, he had wanted to just lounge around naked tonight.

“Very much.” Nami answered, resting her chin in her hand. 

Ace watched the girls, all smiles and giggling. That was normal, seeing a couple of people getting hot and friendly so close by. He should have gotten a room, like Luffy seemed to have done with Zoro. The redhead was quiet, now that she said what she had wanted to say. She was… tired. The princess too. The Logia has seen men stretched too thin, fighting or traveling or shopping or fucking… it didn’t matter, tired always looked the same. 

“Oi, they’re not looking.” Ace whispered over the back of the couch. 

Sanji appeared at the foot of the sofa, struggling to get back into his slacks when Ace threw a boot at him. After some flamboyant forms of communication, Sanji finally got the message and wrapped up in a blanket with Ace. The fire had burned low now, though it remained warm inside. It was quiet, except for the slow, and gradually louder snores that announced everyone upstairs had fallen to sleep. 

Sanji nuzzled into the crook of Ace’s neck, kissing him there before lightly stroking and rolling his tongue across the man’s strong collar bones. 

“Sanji.” Ace breathed, and slowly he guided the blonde to turn over, and the Logia’s hands were suddenly on either side of Sanji’s trembling hips. The head of Ace’s cock wet and ready, poised behind him, and he could feel the man’s hot breath between his shoulder blades. 

The push inside the cook was slow, Ace had lubricated himself from a bottle he always carried with him, but it was still tight inside Sanji. How long had the man gone without a man in him? He had said he was experienced? Did he not practice? He was just like new. Ace paused, he had made entry, but only just. Pulling out he kissed Sanji’s neck. “Sorry.” He whispered, opposite hand trailing across rippled abdominal muscle. The *k’pop of the lube bottle startled Sanji, but he soon relaxed as Ace lowered slick fingers down his back, one sliding passed his muscled opening and into the blonde’s warm body. Sanji’s head pulls back into the older’s chest, gasping at the heat of Ace's touch. “I had no idea you needed to prepare first.” Ace was whispering, no desire to have Nami wake up and scare his partner off. He took Sanji’s ear between his teeth. 

“It’s fine.” Sanji breathes, arms reaching back to clutch at Ace’s forearms. The commander’s second finger joins the first, scissoring the blonde open slowly, enjoying the suppressed moans that regardless escape his throat. Trying to be quiet being in the fore of both their minds, Ace grins. He still wants to hear Sanji’s voice. A third finger, pushing and pressing, and Sanji is unable to speak at all, his teeth biting down against his own arm before Ace gently pulls fingers free from inside him. 

Sanji takes in great lungfulls of air as Ace repositions himself behind him, setting palms on shivering hips. “I’m putting it in now, Sanji.” 

Ace’s voice makes his blood rush, pumping up and through his brain far too quickly to be of any real value. “Shut up… just hurry.” 

Oh. Fuck…. 

Ace enters Sanji with practiced slowness. The tip of his cock registering that he’s already found the man’s firm prostate, and he grinds down, holding the blonde by his shoulders and hips. 

“A-Ace!” Sanji’s whisper sounds like begging, and that’s nice. Ace likes to be begged for, buried like he is in the warm, pulsating ass of a man like Sanji. Fuck, but he’s hot. Silky skin and tight muscle, his nipples are small, yet large enough to tweak between two fingers when he starts to shiver just right. He’s sweating again, but not from heat this time, for a far better reason than that. 

The Logia shifts so that Sanji is obliged to get on his hands and knees, Ace leaning over him, soft wet slaps into the cook’s thighs make a rhythm on the air. “Fuck, Sanji. Yea, right, you’re, fuck…” strings of punctuated words quietly join the rhythm, and Sanji’s sharp inhales and exhales act like seasoning to the meal. 

Ace drags back until he’s in real danger of falling out before bucking back. He’ll go halfway in for a few strokes, hands on Sanji’s abdomen until he feels the man’s guts shift, and then deeper, pushing into that heat before beginning again. Sanji’s teeth are clamped tight, not wanting to wake the others, but his breathing is uneven, his eyes keep opening and closing and rolling back. 

“Sanji.” Ace pants into the blonde’s ear, biting the lobe gently. “Think it's time you came for me, Sanji.” 

It was hard and brutal, intense beyond certainly anything he had experienced lately. Sanji let out a painful moan, more out of disbelief that he came rather than an exclamation of how coming felt to him. It felt fucking fantastic. But he couldn’t tell Ace, he could hardly breathe. 

A giggle in his ear told him Ace was still wrapped around him, still buried inside of him. He could still feel Ace’s cock throbbing from having spilled inside. He thrust again, just to let Sanji know he would have kept going for hours, he could make him come like that for… hours. The very thought melted the corners of Sanji’s brain, and he wanted to turn and ravage the man at his back. 

*Clack

The outer door was opened and then closed, a whisper joined it, and Sanji recognized it as Luffy’s voice. Zoro assumedly with him. That was quick, wasn’t it? Why didn’t they stay in whatever building they had gone to? 

“You get distracted easily.” Cooed the Logia, rolling his hips into Sanji just to remind him. The movement grinds into him, and he lets out a long breath, concentrating only on keeping silent. Ace was kind enough to pretend to be asleep when the others approached, falling free from Sanji as he fake-rolled in his sleep. Luffy and Zoro curled up together under a blanket in the opposite chair. 

There was still a long ways between them and Yuba.


	5. Yuba

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That happens in Yuba

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece. That honor belongs to Eiichiro Oda.

Luffy was covered in bandages and slippery salves, burns and cuts across both arms. The Grey Terminal was no place for children to be on the best of days, and when the fire started… It was a miracle anyone had gotten out alive. Ace had sat next to Luffy’s bed every night since the fire, after Sabo had died. He was worried that Luffy would suddenly stop breathing, because when he slept Ace heard the other laboring, or worse – choked with tears. Smoke injury was still injury, and Ace would be damned if his little brother would die from asphyxiation in his sleep. 

“Ace?” 

Ace turned, he knew Luffy’d been awake for a while, they just hadn’t said anything to each other until now. “Yea, Lu?” 

“Why doesn’t Ace sleep anymore?” 

“What do you mean, Lu?” 

“Ace is always awake, when-whenever I open my eyes.”

Ace smoothed out the dark fringe of Luffy’s bangs. The younger one’s forehead was hot. He was still running a fever. “Would you prefer I wasn’t here?” 

“No.” Came Luffy’s quick reply. “I just, just don’t want Ace to be sad.” 

~  
Ace’s heart jolted in his chest, and his eyes opened. He was alone on the sofa. Across from him, Luffy was rolled up in his first mate’s lap. Roronoa Zoro was awake, one hand stroking down his captain’s back while he stared off to the side, breathing slowly and obviously deep in whatever thought had woken him from sleep. 

The Logia pushed himself up, stretching stiff muscles before rubbing a hand through his dark mop of hair. A gentle glow had begun to kiss at the windows set high in the chapel, the glass unbroken, made of strong Alabasta sand. High arches streamed over them, and between them were detailed paintings of life in the desert. Such artistry held no nostalgia for Ace. His home was the sea… his heart… was the sea. There would be nothing in the desert to call him to comfort, and he was reminded of the reason he had come to this island. To find Blackbeard, to kill him. To revenge his nakama. 

“Good morning.” Ace’s skin registered the slide of a lean leg against him, shortly followed by an arm being draped across his opposite shoulder, a cup of fresh coffee presented under his nose. Sanji settled next to him on the sofa, sipping from his own mug. “Oi, ‘morning, shitty swordsman.” The blonde cooed in Zoro’s direction. 

A low grumble met the cook’s words, Zoro’s arms snaking around Luffy’s shoulder as the younger man nuzzled closer into his chest. 

Ace stared. It had been a long time since he’d seen Luffy sleep so deeply. “Thank you.” He breathed, without thinking. Sanji’s sidelong glance caught Ace’s eyes resting on the moss headed swordsman just before he bowed his head. 

“Alright, everybody up!” Nami was already dressed and ready, Vivi at her side. “We’ve got twenty-five miles to make before we reach Yuba! No more stops if we can avoid it!” 

~  
No more stops, if they could avoid it. 

Sure.

“Oi!” Zoro shouted at Luffy. The idiot had broken open a cactus for its water, and ever since then he’d been running around and around, shouting at invisible enemies, and just being generally obnoxious. Chopper woke up briefly to confirm that the cactus had hallucinogenic compounds in its nectar. Like they hadn’t noticed…

Nami had left Zoro in charge of Luffy, and continued on. Zoro watched their retreating backs without much interest, he’d be able to follow the camel tracks as soon as he got Luffy to settle down and walk. Doing that was going to be a challenge, because he could see it in Luffy’s face – he was high as shit. 

“Oi.” Growling from the base of his guts, Zoro felt his head spin a little. Dehydration was becoming an issue with all of them, and coupled with the lack of available alcohol – it had begun to wear on the swordsman greatly. 

Luffy stared back at his first mate with slipping eyes. He kept weaving and nearly falling over before his sandaled feet would right himself, his face paled so that the scar just under the left eye stood out red and inflamed. He didn’t appear to see Zoro, which was a complication. 

Sliding Kitetsu from his scabbard, Zoro considered, and then returned the katana. He would not fight his captain at full strength when the other was impaired. “Dammit, Luffy.” 

The resulting fight did not last very long, Chopper having woken up enough to load a syringe with tranquilizer. All Zoro had to do was immobilize his captain long enough for the little doctor to slide the needle into his rubbery skin. 

“Ah!” Luffy’s head snapped back as the clear liquid was injected, catching the man in the jaw. Wide eyes tracked to the injection sight just above his right wrist. “Zoro?” The captain’s voice trembled, shivered out of him in with a mixture of fear and confusion that wracked the swordsman to his bones. 

“It’s alright.” Zoro said, he couldn’t help but say something. “I’ve got you.” 

“It won’t take long.” Chopper told Zoro, removing the needle and swabbing the spot before applying a bandage. 

“What?” Luffy stammered. His eyelids were already beginning to droop. 

“Shh.” Zoro supported Luffy’s head as the drug made its slow way through his bloodstream. “You’re going to sleep.” 

“Don’t wanna!” Luffy pushed at Zoro’s arms, kicking his legs out to sit upright. A knee caught Zoro in the side (figure that rubber logic out), but it was too late for that. He had no strength left to push his first mate off. “I, I don’t want to sleep.” His speech was slurring, blinking stupidly up at the sun. 

Within the next minute Luffy was unconscious, hanging like a limp doll in Zoro’s arms. Chopper sat down on the little sled Zoro had been using to pull him through the desert on. “He’ll sleep off the effects of the hallucinogen, might be an hour, maybe two.” 

“Thanks, Chopper.” Zoro said, sliding Luffy’s limp form onto his back as he held onto each wrist. 

“I… I don’t care if you thank me! Baka!” 

Zoro chuckled as the little Zoan wiggled around, all appreciative no matter what he said. 

~  
The rebels were not at Yuba. 

 

They had been gone for some time, and now too far away to catch before the fighting began. 

 

That plan would have to change.

 

“Vivi.” Nami’s arm wound around the princess’ shoulders, even though the slight comfort she could provide for her friend seemed meaningless. The women cried quietly, out of sight of Toto, the last man still living in Yuba. She did not want to show weak tears in front of him. 

Ace, Usopp, Sanji, and Chopper were arranging blankets and pillows. They were able to sleep inside, and with any luck there might be water to wash with in the morning. Ace was looking forward to a bath, they all were. 

“Oi, Zoro, come help!” Usopp threw a pillow at the silent swordsman, who caught it, swung it back and around and flattened against the sniper’s face like it were a bag of bricks. 

Zoro had been standing next to the window for a while, watching Luffy. He was digging holes out in the sand with the old man who lived in this town. They had been talking, now digging. Zoro wondered if he should just go to sleep, but he couldn’t relax, not with his brain in constant motion. He didn’t like not knowing which way he was going, which was odd, since he was always lost. 

Ace joined the swordsman at the window, peering out towards his brother wearing that straw hat under a scarf. “Want us to call him in?” Ace offered, flexing his arm. 

“No. Thanks.” Zoro’s eyes did not stray while he answered the Whitebeard Commander. 

Ace stood watching the swordsman for several moments, when he decided that there wasn’t anything else occupying the man than his little brother. 

“…if you don’t shut up!”

Feathers and bits of fluff, blankets, pillows, chairs and clothes, everything seemed to fill the air with the pillow first instigated by Sanji, officially anyway. Chopper was hiding behind a pillar, Usopp up on the ledge catching things and throwing them back at the swirling cook. Vivi took cover with Chopper as Nami brought a punctuated end to the event. 

Her fists were still raised when she felt Ace’s hand on her shoulder. His touch was warm, warmer than most – and certainly everyone else on the crew. 

She turned towards him, the Logia with two fingers over his mouth, grinning as widely as his little brother. Leading the redhead away from the general noise he hid their faces behind his hat. The corner was dull and dark, and the redhead’s eyes sparkled with burgundy-brown, and the wicked smile on her lips…

“What do you think?” Ace whispered. 

Nami giggled a little. She could see Zoro standing at the window, stiff as a stack of dried clay – ready to crack at any second. “For Zoro, anything.” 

~  
Luffy had dug nearly twenty feet, four foot wide in every direction. He was sweaty, and his arms were sore and heavy. They hadn’t caught any lizards that day, hadn’t had meat. Luffy’s stomach rumbled. “Quit it!” he growled, punching himself in the gut. His two lower ribs moving apart as his fist sank in. He thought about that, but not very hard. 

The moon had moved from one side of what had become the opening of a long tunnel, to the other. It must be very late. Luffy considered jumping out and finding the others. It would be warmer that way. More comfortable, or it would be… if he weren’t so… weren’t so very tired. 

~  
Chopper, Vivi, and Usopp put up no resistance whatsoever to Nami’s abrupt and quiet order that they were sleeping in the next hostel over. Ace caught Sanji by the belt loops in the wake of the closing doors behind the redhead. The lock clicking in a rather ominous way that made him shiver, or was that Ace’s touch climbing up under his shirt. 

“Sanji.” Ace whispered, a second hand sliding under the silky material of the cook’s now untucked shirt to splay hot fingers along the man’s abdomen. “How do you feel about trying something a little exotic?” 

“Mmm?” Sanji’s brain had already begun to turn to mush, those so-very talented fingers warming him down to his bones. “Ex-otic how?” 

Ace turned Sanji towards the upper landing where Roronoa Zoro still stood, silent and still like a stone chiseled sentinel. The night coming in through the windows was as bright as any other light-source inside, the two contradicting with each other, the areas of the swordsman to cast into shadow. It resulted in a sort of flicker that left nothing imaginative about the definition of Zoro’s body, the line of him only broken by crossed bare forearms. He had removed the outer layers of his clothes, though that god-awful white shirt clung to his body, still slightly red-tinted from having fished Luffy out of the quicksand at the very beginning of their journey across the desert. 

“You can’t be suggesting-?” 

Ace’s palm disappeared under the waistline of Sanji’s trousers, fingers tickling down a soft trail of blonde hair before just barely gracing contact with the man’s steadily rising shaft. “Why wouldn’t I suggest it?” 

“Luffy’s with Zoro.” Sanji breathed, fixated on the fact that Zoro was directly in his line of vision. How did that shitty bastard not see or hear them? And WHY was it turning him on thinking about it. 

“Luffy’s asleep outside, don’t worry about him.” 

“How do you know that?” 

“I just know.” 

“But-”

“Yes or no?” Warm fingers wrapped around him then. The cook’s spine alighting on fire, burning him from the inside out. “Sanji.” 

~  
Zoro couldn’t see any movement outside, only the occasional appearance of the old man depositing a bucket of sand outside the hole he was digging. Nothing from Luffy’s. Teeth pressed together, Zoro contracted and eased off the muscles, feeling the pull and tug in his neck, down across his chest and shoulders. It always gave him a headache, but he had to do something. 

“W-wh-What the hell!” 

“Just relax, Marimo.” Sanji chuckled breathily into the swordsman’s ear, lips brushing against the three cold piercings along his lobe. 

“Fuck you, Cook!” Zoro struggled, but the blonde had been able to get close, close enough to snake limbs around him nearly as efficiently as Luffy, his arms pinned above his head and ankles kicked out to put the swordsman on his back right on top of the blonde. 

“Should keep it down.” Ace murmured, stretching forward until he’d propped himself on his hands inches from the quickly rising and falling chest of the other man. 

Sanji held on, keeping the angle of himself just on his side. Zoro can’t get any of his terrifying strength to bend in the right direction that would allow him to escape, and recoils as Ace drew closer, a high whine escaping his throat. The cook heard it, and so did Ace. 

“Oi?” Ace paused, drawing one hand up the man’s ribcage, outside the shirt still. Zoro flinched at the touch and wriggled fruitlessly. The older man rested one palm over the swordsman’s chest, noticing that there was something underneath, something hard and… a scar. 

“Let go.” Zoro ordered, his legs and arms shaking against Sanji’s grip. 

Ace smiled, and fuck if he didn’t look like Luffy doing it. Caught between folds of both shock and panic, Ace took advantages, sealing his lips to Zoro’s as Sanji looked on. Ace’s eyes were with Sanji, as he probed into the swordsman’s mouth, the taste of his teeth and gums and lips. He was delicious. The cook should not complain. 

The slow, trained movements of Ace’s tongue spun Zoro’s stomach and he clenched back from it. It felt good, but he was… he couldn’t… Luffy would hate him forever. 

“We saw you come back early.” Ace whispered as he moved from Zoro’s lips, teeth gently testing the line of his clamped jaw. “My little brother might be quick, but that quick…” Both Ace’s hands were in between the swordsman’s legs, touching him, feeling out the paths created along his flesh. “You two didn’t anything last night.” 

Zoro felt the warm wet tongue that trailed along his neck before the sound of Ace and Sanji kissing met his right ear. Sanji was enjoying being the object restraining Zoro, because he just wanted to know what Ace was going to do next. 

“Let me up.” The deadpan in Zoro’s voice was only betrayed by the sheer and utter panic that was circling inside his chest. He really should apologize to Usopp, how much fun he makes of him because he’s a coward. 

“Is that what you want?” Ace asked, backing off the swordsman until he’s kneeling between the two sets of interlocked legs. His hands still rubbing hot lines up and down Zoro’s thighs, warring into such developed muscle. He was just as compact and supple as Sanji, but more so, layered, with one sleek sheet of muscle over the other. Such raw physical strength was rare. 

Ace wished for a moment that it was he the cook was restraining, and that this power were about to take him. And then a thought came to him, and he grinned. “You don’t want any tips from a previous lover?” 

Sanji heard Zoro’s heart stop beating for three beats of his own. So it was true. Luffy and Ace had been lovers. 

“I don’t need your help!”

Sanji clutches at Zoro’s arms, the swordsman’s entire body trying to curl in like a finicky cut of lobster. Zoro’s heartbeat had begun to race again, faster and faster, Sanji’ could feel it from where he had the swordsman’s wrists pinned. 

“Oi, oi.” Zoro mightn’t have heard Sanji’s voice, but the long wet lick along his neck made him stop moving. “You should take his advice.” 

“What the fuck, Cook?!” That last shout shook the windowpanes, and Ace looked to the side for a moment, thoughtful, as if listening. 

“Shut up, you goddamn idiot.” Sanji hissed, one hand dragging around Zoro’s mouth. “Respect your elders, or whatever other fancy thing you’re famous for talking about, mister best in the world.” 

Ace smiled again, though it worried Zoro why. “It doesn’t matter.” The Logia muttered. 

“The fuck it doesn’t!” 

“Should I gag you?” Ace asked, “Is that what you want?” 

Zoro’s arms were starting to hurt from pushing and struggling with Sanji. Sanji had him at the best angles, he knew that. There was no feasible way to get out of that grip. “Are you going to rape me, Ace?” 

Sanji’s grip slipped a little, but when Zoro tried to take advantage, he tightened, staring back at the older pirate. Zoro’s heart was going to explode, it was beating so fast, and he tried to take steady breaths. Ace’s face appeared on top of his folded arms on Zoro’s belly. “I don’t want to rape you.” 

Sanji could place that expression from a mile away. It was that infuriating logic that made Luffy so hard to handle. Ace had that too? They had to be related! But they weren’t. Sanji was still trying to figure that one out. 

“Then get off me. I don’t want you or the damn cook touching me.” 

“Why?” Ace rubbed forward against Sanji, rubbing their groins together, and Zoro flinched at the sound that came out of the cook so close to his ear. 

“Get the fuck off me!” 

“It’ll feel good… might do you and him some good - to kick start one of you.”

“Kick start?” 

Sanji wriggled out from under Zoro in a flash, sweeping the sash ties across his katana so as to leave him disarmed on his back. 

“Oi!” 

“Zoro.” Ace was removing his hat, vest, his hands moved on to his belt as he began to unbuckle. “Just have one look, and tell me you’re not curious.” He smirked, flashing whiter than white teeth. Well, he was Luffy’s brother. Or… he wasn’t, was he? He was, right? 

Sanji leaned up against one of the free pillars and lit a cigarette. 

“And you? Just, just.. what the hell, Cook?!” 

“Oh, quit your moaning, like you’ve never been in a three-some before?” 

Zoro’s jaw clenched and Sanji just stared. “What, seriously, really?” 

“Zoro.” Having been distracted from Ace’s meticulous stripping while the two nakama shouted back and forth at each other, the older pirate managed to come up behind the swordsman and cup a handful of firm muscular ass. The following *Yipe, as the slide of Ace’s hot body slid up behind Zoro, is something Sanji will forever cherish as the funniest fucking thing ever. 

Ace was freaking beautiful too. Zoro spun at the sudden contact, his hands falling across the freckled man’s chest. His abdominals all but made of rose colored marble. He had no hair on his chest, but a small amount grew between his navel, down toward what would and should obviously be his pride. Ace was only half hard. Zoro wondered if he were as large as his. 

“That looks like our answer.” The simple murmur of words crackled and snapped around Zoro’s conscious, but didn’t make much sense to him, except that this, this was just fucking weird. 

Zoro heard the flump of clothing as Sanji stripped, he and Ace both standing naked on either side of him made the swordsman feel extremely vulnerable, but he followed suit. Fingers trembling as he removed his green hamaraki and trousers and piling them on the floor with the rest of his things. 

It was Sanji that approached Zoro first, making the other man shiver violently. “Calm down, Marimo, you’ll do yourself a heart attack." 

Easier said than actually done… Zoro fought the urge to clock the damn cook upside the head, instead he directed his attention forward, allowing Sanji’s strong fingers to dig into his shoulders, working out what had essentially become a nest of woven tension, while Ace was standing there, naked and glorious, his arms crossed. 

Right in front of him. 

He had a tattoo over one arm. ASCE with the S crossed out. It looked a little to deliberate to be just a drunken-pirate-tattoo typo.


	6. And Three became Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luffy? Why the hell not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece. That honor belongs to Eiichiro Oda.

“Sabo, Sabo!” 

Ace took Luffy’s hand, took it and held it close to his chest as he held the other to Luffy’s shoulder, holding him down on the floor of the treehouse. 

It had been a month, maybe longer, since Sabo had died. All of Ace and Luffy’s wounds had healed, so about a week or so ago Ace suggested they come back up to their home. Luffy hadn’t really slept through a full night since, and was waking up more violently as the week went on. 

“Lu.” Ace whispered in the dark, holding Luffy to the floor to keep him from damaging either the house or himself. “It’s alright, Lu.” 

Luffy’s terrified brown eyes look at Ace for a moment before going dim, like they always do, and he goes back to sleep. He doesn’t say a word. 

~  
“I said, what’s up with the ta-ta-tattoo?” Zoro was hard pressed to even ask his question, Sanji choosing to wrap both hands around him and pull back. Their naked bodies were far too close together. 

“It’s a memory.” Ace said, staring at his left arm, bold letters spelling out for him what is so obvious that it’s been hidden from plain sight for years. Zoro wasn’t paying much attention to Ace, to be honest, Sanji succeeding in opening up the middle of his back with a few well-placed fingers to pressure points. He melts into the cook, all the feeling suddenly gone out of his legs. 

Sanji lowers his nakama to the ground, taking his time. Zoro’s body was popping, all the release of tension like a paralyzing drug. Sanji knew it would, that’s why he did it. “Ace,” Sanji’s lips met the other man’s over Zoro’s limp body, the two of them wrapped in skillful licks and coordinated breathing. What became nearly half an hour of impassioned contact ended. Sanji shivered and gasped, resting his head on Zoro’s shoulder as Ace made for the swordsman’s lips. 

“Ace.” 

The Logia grinned, close enough to taste the sweat and erratic breaths of the beautiful man helpless before him. “Thought I heard you get up.” He said, and licks Zoro’s upper lip silkily. 

Luffy blinked a few times, taking in this scene in front of him. 

“Sorry, Lu. You were asleep.” Ace leans in to wipe a dribble of saliva from Sanji’s lips. The cook looked shocked to see his captain, but Ace didn’t seem to mind, so he went with it. Why the hell not?

“Why’s Zoro on the floor?” Luffy asks, unbuttoning his vest and sliding off his sandals. 

“Ah, that was me, Sencho.” Sanji admitted, accepting another kiss from Ace, the freckled man drawing blonde hair away from his eyes, both of them together such complimentary shades of blue and grey that they were neither.

Ace kisses Sanji, reaching with his free hand for… whatever’s handy. 

Luffy’s shorts slide down to join his sandals. He doesn’t wear underwear, unless it’s really-really-really cold, then he’ll wear boxers, but otherwise Luffy’s too stretchy to need or want extra layers of clothing on him. Especially right now. He can see between Sanji and Ace’s chests, like a theater screen, the fact of Ace’s hand on Zoro, squeezing and pulling, and Zoro’s… not fighting? He shakes himself, because Sanji had already said he did something. He’d have to ask the cook later what he did, because for now, he just doesn’t really care. 

Luffy watches a few moments, the movements his brother’s lips make with Sanji. Zoro between them. Every now and then Zoro would try to move, Luffy could see him struggling. The captain had crawled enough to know what that disorientated struggling meant, like he’s all out of blood, and so he needs to wait for Zoro to stand up. It wouldn’t be fair otherwise. 

“Are you going to… just watch… from downstairs, Lu?” Ace asks between kisses with his cook-lover. 

“I’m the captain.” Luffy says, a hand trailing down onto himself while Ace fondled His Swordsman. “I’ll do what I want.” 

Sanji broke his kiss with Ace, lowering his lips to Zoro’s chest and taking the hot nub of one nipple between his teeth. 

“nn – Cook, get… Stop!” 

Ace watched the fitful breathing, heard it catch and carry throughout his chest as Sanji’s slicked warmth across him. The swordsman’s eyes were closed tight, and it was hard to tell if this was actually right or not. Zoro was so distracted that Ace actually took his pulse. There was no reason for this at all. “Sanji.” Directing the blond up, he traps the cook in a kiss, pulling their bodies together with the promise of such wild adventure of far off seas that the man searching for All Blue cannot resist.

“I won’t disappoint you.” Ace whispers, pressing hips into the blonde as they stood scheming just out of Zoro’s earshot. Luffy is still down the stairs, he’s stroked himself as far as he really wants to be, and he’s just staring at Zoro now, watching the disorientation of someone who’s been punched in the guts. Is that what Sanji did? Luffy can only imagine how this feels, because he honestly can’t remember how it’s supposed to feel anymore, but the rubber man’s seen enough aftermath to know that it must hurt like hell. Zoro looks like he hurts like hell, and he’s not talking. 

Ace kneels next to Zoro while Sanji goes to Luffy. 

“What happened to you?” Ace asks Zoro, watching his most successful attempt at sitting up, and the swordsman rubs the back of his neck. He glares at Ace, shaking his head. “Come on, everybody has a past. What was it, rape, slavery, what?” 

“Marriage.” 

Ace blinks. “Oi?” 

“Marriage arranged when I was five, it doesn’t matter, but it… it was.” 

Ace could imagine. An arrangement so young screamed East Blue, and during Ace’s time as captain of the Spade Pirates, he’d some of the youngest mothers and fathers he’d ever met on that sea. He also knew it was a practice of theirs to hide the face and body of their wife until they are thirty, all ‘encounters’ prior to that are chaperoned and counted, it is… required. 

“How long?” 

“Three months.” Zoro swallows, trying to straighten out his neck. Sanji really did loosen him, he could move his shoulders farther now, and his head would tilt to the side easier. 

“How many,” the commander made a slight motion with his chin, even if Zoro really isn’t looking at him. 

Zoro’s breathing is evening out, deep breaths as he sits cross-legged on the floor. “Maybe fifty times.” He hangs his head again, and Ace could hear Luffy climbing the steps. 

“You ran.” Ace asked, lowering his voice. 

“Yea.” 

“So why are you still running?” 

Zoro looked at Ace, just as the floor moved a little, announcing Luffy’s arrival. Sanji standing behind his captain until Ace pushes himself up and comes around. “Thank you.” Ace purrs for Sanji, trailing fingers through the soft gold strands until he can see both curled eyebrows. 

“Oi-”

“Shhh-shhh-shhh, shhh.” Ace’s takes Sanji’s hand and leads him around, stepping smartly over both Luffy and Zoro, before sitting against the wall and insisting that Sanji join him. 

Luffy’s at Zoro’s back, a little ways away from where his older brother’s pulled His Cook into his lap, and into hand. Sanji’s eyes are rolled back in his head, well… they would be, wouldn’t they. Luffy won’t ever say Ace was ever bad at giving hand jobs. 

“Lu, oi! Lu?” Ace snaps, and when he does a little fizzle of flames spouted from between his fingers. He snaps about a dozen times before Luffy’s seen him. 

“Huh” 

“Are you that hungry, Lu?” Ace asks. 

Sanji scoffs. “Are you kidding, between the two of you, he had the larger half of the last three lizards.” Finally able to get his leg over the spot where he’d been wrestling with Ace from the moment they sat down, Sanji’s switched to laying half on the pillow lying next to the window and half on Ace, trailing a long finger across the base of the other man’s spine, touching gently at the weakened junction. 

It was Ace’s turn to let out a sound, and Luffy watches how his brother’s body ripples with the sharp sensations. He knows that one, and grins. Second vertebrae up. It had taken him forever to find it, and Sanji had found it just now. “Luffy’s different.” Ace manages to say, once Sanji’s finished rewiring him from the waist up. 

“Eh?” and Sanji’s petting up the side of Ace’s neck, holding him close to his chest with the promises of the best fully accepted by the other man, because Ace knew Sanji just liked it that way. “Why’s Luffy different…?” Sanji asks, and now he’s managed to find Luffy’s eyes, and really knows his captain is looking back. “Ace?” 

Luffy held himself quiet, but badly. Fists balled up, lips trembling. Sanji had expected no less from his captain. Luffy can’t lie, he’s proven that one too many times, and since keeping a straight face is almost the same as lying, Luffy sucked at that too, marvelously. 

The blond shook his head.

“Donno, always been that way.” Ace’s hands slip between Sanji’s thighs where he can trail fingers along the lean man. He still didn’t get it, how he was so skeletally thin but so solid. “Where did you grow from? you’re built like a bean pole.” He teased, tickling at spots on Sanji’s leg while Luffy just waited. 

Zoro was pretty much curled up into a ball, hugging his knees. Luffy’s spent a lot of time with Zoro huddled up around the beer barrels on board Merry, and even before that. He remembers his first nights he ever spent with Zoro, before Nami joined them. Her presence alone was good for them… 

Luffy exhaled. “Zoro.” 

“Yea.” 

Luffy glanced at Ace, he and Sanji looking on, and Luffy made to put his arms around his swordsman. He moved slowly, and Ace held his breath. Sanji could see, could almost count, the tremors that ran up Zoro’s arms. His toes splaying momentarily, and that sharp gasp of air that he just held. Luffy settled himself against his first mate, and Zoro was letting him. He was shivering, and Ace was sure he was crying, but he was letting Luffy touch him. 

“It’s a start.” Sanji whispered in Ace’s ear. 

Ace waved a few fingers in front of his mouth, pushing Sanji down as Luffy just clung to Zoro. He looked happy, Luffy. On his knees, draped over his lover like some rubbery quilt. Breathing freely with the same motion as the person closest to him, because he can hear the sound that is created when their breaths sync. 

Zoro knew Luffy’d be eager. He should be eager too, and he is, in a way… he’s impressed with Luffy’s slowness, because he never thought that his captain was capable of going slow about anything. “Does Zoro wanna stay, or go?” 

“Stay or go?” Zoro repeated, one had coming up to rest on the back of Luffy’s. He’s warm, and, he’s letting this happen? 

“Oh no!” Ace’s protest would have been less of a shout if Sanji hadn’t used that precise moment to duck down and *lick across his vertebrae, second from the bottom. “No!” Ace repeated, shaking his head as he sunk against Sanji’s chest. “You’ve got to stay, I already got us the room.” 

“Sounds good to me.” Sanji said, rubbing upwards on Ace’s shoulder. 

“Zoro.” Luffy said. “Stay or go?” 

~  
Zoro is surer than sure, he’s never even had dreams like this. 

Sanji and Ace decided that it wasn’t ‘safe’ for four grown men to do these kinds of things right in the middle of a small hallway between a window and a staircase, so instead suggested they go downstairs. They spent time picking up pillows and setting up a couple matrasses right in the center of the room, and during that time Luffy spoke with Zoro. They talked for a long time, and Zoro told Luffy a lot of things, he told him what happened before he started to swing a sword. 

Luffy listened, patiently, his arms around his first mate’s abdomen. He neither flinched nor made a sound while Zoro talked, and now that the swordsman was finished he was trying to decide his next move. 

“So now you know almost everything about me.” Zoro finished, rubbing one hand into his face. 

Luffy sighed, sliding around until he opened Zoro’s arms, pressing a kiss to lips that tasted of warm tears. “I know lots about Zoro.” 

When Luffy’s arms leave him, Zoro shivers for how cold it is, without that warmth. Luffy leads the way downstairs. Ace and Sanji already lying on two sofa’s pushed together, pillows everywhere, and around the walls and wide structural pillars candles are burning. Luffy’s eyes wander around the cloth hangings over the windows and on the pillars. It seemed to be that everywhere, some bit of fabric was flapping. He had to wear three layers just to keep the sun away! It felt good to be naked, and he made for the mattress, spreading himself out while bringing himself up to Ace’s mouth.

Sanji tickled, nipping a bit at Ace’s belly as the brothers kissed. No, not brothers! Sake Brothers? It was starting to really hurt Zoro’s head now. “Oi.” 

From the edge of the bed it was becoming difficult to be embarrassed, naked and weaponless, he couldn’t even glare properly anymore. 

“Sorry, Zoro.” Luffy grinned; licking Ace’s lower lip and biting at the tip of his tongue before leaning back, inviting Zoro with a look. Zoro obeyed, allowing the three other men to wrap themselves around him, feeling each other in a mess of hands, feet, knees and elbows. There were hands on cock and hands messaging into shoulders or hips. Ace was gasping somewhere near Zoro’s left thigh and Luffy had stretched himself into a pretzel trying to wrap a hand around Ace, kiss Sanji, and still tickle Zoro, before Sanji called a halt to the madness. 

“Just, like this. Left, Marimo!” 

“Where’d you learn this?” Ace asked, observing the set up that Sanji was working on. 

Zoro was the focus, lying propped up on pillows, Luffy kneeling between his legs. Ace stood just over the swordmans’ head, and Sanji was working on getting into his position, where he would be straddling the man’s stomach. 

“I’d much rather Luffy were there.” Zoro growled as Sanji’s lithe limbs pressed up against him, but Sanji grinned. 

“Oho? You’d rather I trade spots with Luffy, moss-for-brains?” The cook asked, trailing fingers through course green hair that grew on Zoro’s chest. 

“Not happening.” Luffy breathed, his pupils blown wide as Sanji’s weight – coupled with how the pillows were stacked – tilted Zoro’s hips perfectly. He licked his lips. 

“You want a safe-word, Zoro?” Sanji teased while Ace knelt down, placing a hand on the swordsman’s cheek. 

“Fuck you, Curly Cue.” Zoro growled, closing his eyes. 

“Kiss Zoro, Sanji.” 

Ace grinned as Zoro’s eyes nearly fell out of his head. Sanji, balancing on the curves of his knees, leaned forward over Zoro, placing a soft *peck to the crook of neck and shoulder. “Aye, aye, Sencho.” 

Luffy’s hands ran hot lines up and down Zoro’s legs, worrying into him until he could feel himself melting away. Sanji gave a few more kisses to Zoro, along his chest and one to the base of the other man’s chin before Ace reached down for him, requiring his services. 

The slide of Ace’s warm phallus down his throat felt good, and he held him there for nearly a minute, hands resting on the older man’s ass. Zoro watched the cook’s bulging trachea with every plunge Ace made into the blonde’s mouth. 

Luffy watches too, the way his brother’s eyebrows meet together as he bucks into Sanji’s mouth. There’s a low slapping sound as Sanji’s cheek meets Ace’s groin, and at each *slap, a moan follows, fast and desperate. 

“Sanji’s good?” Luffy asks Ace, reaching for the bottle of lube next to them on the bed. 

“Yea, Lu. Your cook’s so fucking good.” Ace says, biting his lower lip while rocking into Sanji’s mouth. “So, so fucking go~od.” 

Luffy’s smeared his fingers, and drips a few drops onto Zoro’s cock, red and nearly fully hard. Before he can take the appendage in hand, however, Ace has waved his hand, and Luffy pauses – deciding to take his brother’s suggestion. 

Sanji’s keen bounces off the walls, a low moan that carries and intensifies while Luffy works him from the inside. Two slick rubbery fingers reaching into his body, scissoring him open.  
“S-sencho, oi. ah! Mmph…” Ace’s cock slips between Sanji’s gasping lips, the older man placing one hand behind the blonde’s head to keep him in motion. Sanji’s lifted momentarily when Luffy’s other hand grasps his swordsman, slick motions of the wrist and worrying down to his base. Zoro pants in a deep, rougher moans than Sanji.


	7. Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The night is never long enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece. That honor belongs to Eiichiro Oda.

“Happy Birthday, Lu!” Ace is sixteen, and Luffy is fourteen that day. 

In another year, Ace will take to the sea in search of One Piece. To be the Pirate King, maybe. Just as Luffy wanted to be. 

Wax melted slowly where it stuck out from the little cake in front of him. He wasn’t hungry, and he wasn’t happy. Ace sighed and pinched out the candle, plucking it free before leaving the cake with Luffy. 

~  
Luffy focused on Zoro, because Sanji was so tight it didn’t really matter how he moved his fingers, but Zoro... It was the lightest touch he could manage, slicking over and under his swordsman’s shaft, alternating with the backs or fronts of his fingers. Zoro’s legs twitched when he applied pressure to any of the thick veins that ran his length. He was so hard, he felt like granite in Luffy’s hand. 

“Ahn, relax your throat more, Sanji.” 

Both Ace’s hands were on Sanji’s head, the cook’s lips meeting the course hair growing right at his root. Ace’s cheeks were red, and he was sweating. Pulling himself free of Sanji’s mouth he wiped away a wet spot of saliva on the cook’s lip. 

Luffy tilted his fingers inside the cook, dragging them across the man’s sensitive insides until there’s a shiver in his legs and Ace has to kneel to kiss his lips. Drawing away from each other, Sanji lowers his head, and Ace sees Zoro’s closed eyes, the look of bliss on his face from being stroked like that. When did Luffy learn to stroke cock like that? 

“Zoro.” The swordsman’s eyes opened as he was addressed. Ace kissed at the edge of Zoro’s jaw, nipping afterwards. Sanji’s rested his palms on Zoro’s chest, watching Ace rise and turn, then lower himself to place his pride before Zoro’s lips. The firmness of Ace’s thighs and butt stared Sanji in the face, and he leaned forward, dragging his tongue at the juncture of leg and hip. 

Zoro watched Ace move, saw what he expected. Saw the goddamn smile on his face as the shit cook licked him. 

Luffy spun his wrist, backwards and forwards until Zoro’s cock was dancing in his hand. “Zoro.” Luffy said, and Sanji moaned as the captain slipped in a third finger to encourage him open still further. “Taste Ace.” He said, and Sanji keened again, quietly, as Luffy’s digits retreated, leaving him empty and wanting. 

Zoro’s arms were pinned to his sides from all the extra body parts he normally didn’t let come that close to him. Sani’s legs and Ace’s knees, and now his captain’s ordered him to open his mouth? He… 

“Zoro.” Luffy’s got both hands on his first mate now, rolling the hot flesh of his cock between his palms, and then one hands leaves, and he feels the cook shift. “Suck. Ace.” 

“Unless you want to stop this?” Ace suggested, reaching one hand back to stroke Sanji’s cheek. 

Zoro felt the slide and stroke on him, and knew it was Luffy, but… even if he was ordering him to.. he. 

“Sit back?” Ace whispered to Sanji, bending backwards to slide his tongue across the blonde man’s lips. 

“What?” 

Ace gently nudged Sanji back. It was just a few inches, but the angle changed perfectly for Luffy to slide both hands around, and direct Zoro’s heat right into the well prepared hole just above him. 

The swordsman’s lips opened for both pleasure and shock, and Ace takes advantage to slip himself between the other man’s teeth. If he had known how brave that was he mightn't have done it, and Luffy grins at the thought. 

Luffy and Ace stand up from the group, Zoro inside Sanji, the two of them lost for their intents and purposes. The older brother admiring the curves of Sanji’s back, and just then noticed the vast difference in the two’s skin tones. Zoro’s a burnt, almost rusty gold, and Sanji’s so pale he was almost white, but without any of the sickliness of looking transparent.

Luffy and Ace watch for a very short time before Zoro’s thrusts into the cook more violently. He's just started when he gives a hard push and Sanji comes. 

“First out of four.” Ace chuckles. Luffy doubling up.

~  
Sanji’s not able to lift his head. Fuck. The Marimo shouldn’t be this good. It had barely lasted three minutes! 

“Cook.” 

“Yea?” 

Luffy and Ace had just said something, something about first out of four, and Sanji had collapsed onto his shoulder. “You okay.” 

“One minute!” he said, a little louder than he probably had to. 

“Sure!” Ace called back, slapping his brother in the chest before pulling him in for a kiss. 

“You better recover in a minute or I’m throwing you off.” Zoro told the cook, pushing him upright to glare at the man properly. 

“I’ll be fine, Marimo Swordsman.” Sanji gave a wriggle of his lower body to prove his point, though also, to prove that Zoro wasn’t necessarily going to lose out on this deal. 

~  
It was about a week after his fourteenth birthday. He’s not actually spoken to Ace for months. He didn’t laugh. All he did was train and spare with Ace, but other than that Luffy just – wandered. He’d come home a few hours before dawn, scratched and muddy, or soaked to the bone. Ace doesn’t sleep anymore, he just pretends. He’s spent hours wondering where Luffy’s going when sneaks out of the treehouse thinking Ace is asleep.

But Ace knows Luffy knows he doesn’t sleep. He wonders if Luffy just thinks that’s a lie, to make his lie okay. It doesn’t. Ace may not know completely where Luffy goes, but he’s got an idea. There wasn’t much in the middle of the woods where your closest family are harbored bandits. He just wonders how far Luffy’s gone. 

~  
Ace turns to his brother, brushing the backs of his fingers across his torso. “You’re filling out.” 

“Told Ace I would.” Luffy grinned. He pulled Aced in close, leaning up against the other man. 

The Second Division Commander heard it. Luffy’s sigh. Luffy was so tired. He just… he was so tired. “Luffy.” Ace wrapped his arms around to clasp both cheeks in his fingers, squeezing as he drives a wild kiss past Luffy’s lips. Luffy kisses back with ferocity, his blood suddenly on fire… and then Ace releases his lips and Luffy’s left standing in a thrilled state. Ace watches him. “Are you alright?” he laughs. 

“Missed Ace.” Luffy smiles. 

~  
Luffy’s home in the dead of night. He’s got something sharp and painful wedged up behind one shoulder blade. He got it while fighting with those weird hippo-tigers. There’s no way he’s going to get it out by himself. 

He’s halfway across the landing when the lap fizzles to life. 

There’s a blood trail from where Luffy had snuck in, to where he was standing now. 

Ace is sixteen still, and he’s ten months from seventeen. Ace has already told Luffy he’s leaving when he turns seventeen. Luffy isn’t sure what’s going to happen, doesn’t even want to know. 

In silence, Ace removes the splinters and dirt from his little brother’s arm. He's lost a lot of blood, and required twenty stiches before his rubbery skin would stay put. Luffy was pale and exhausted, shrugging on his vest with a grimace. 

“What are you doing, Lu?” Ace asks, facing away from his brother. 

Luffy takes a few deep breathes, feeling the uncomfortable pull of silk sutures. “Training.” 

“You call this training?” Ace nearly shouted. 

The younger brother hung his head, waggling one foot under the table he was sitting on. “Ace is leaving soon.” 

“Yea, so?” 

Luffy bit his lip. 

“What is it, Lu.” 

“Gonna miss Ace.” He said, folding the brim of his straw hat down over his eyes so that only that obnoxious smile peeked out. Luffy’s arms were a mess of layered bandages and grass stain. “Love, Ace.” 

~  
“How the hell did you come in three minutes? I’m not even trying!” 

Sanji bucked down on Zoro and the man’s eyes rolled back into his head. 

Luffy’s suddenly right there, and Ace is helping Sanji up and off Zoro. All the dizziness is pretty much gone, but why he can’t stand up he’s not too sure, unless he’s more dehydrated than he though, which might be the case… probably. 

But holy shit, this is still happening! 

Sanji’s relaxing back, having a cigarette as he and Ace fondle each other like rockstars in a strip club. Luffy’s still, watchful. “So this the kind of lover you prefer?” Zoro asked. 

Luffy blinks, “This what?” 

“Crazy-somes with your brother?” 

Luffy’s rolled over and on his knees, face to face with his swordsman, but upside down. He kisses a line across Zoro’s forehead, slightly aware that Ace and Sanji are talking, but it’s not important to him. “No.” 

Zoro allowed his shoulders to press back into the softest thing he’d slept on for a while. He never realized just how hard sand was. Alabasta sand! It’s been sleeping on bedrock rolled up with his nakama. Mattresses seem a sinful indulgence. Luffy’s ‘No’ rang on the air, making a pitch in Zoro’s ear that fell heavy. “You really want me?” Zoro asked. Luffy’s circled around to lay lips along the swordsman’s collarbone. 

“Of course I want Zoro.” It’s the same solid voice Luffy used to say he loved his brother.

There was a soft *flump, and Ace’s freckled face appears at Zoro’s shoulder. “I want Zoro too.” He says, giving Luffy a peck on the lips before he licks down Zoro’s neck. 

“Can’t he stand up yet?” Sanji asks, holding on to Ace’s flanks as he’s bent over. 

“Shit Cook.” Zoro mumbled around Luffy’s lips. Ace stood back up, pressing back into Sanji with a gasp and a smirk. 

“Lu.” Ace pointed to his brother as Sanji’s body curved around him, and they were exchanging tongued kisses with one another. The Logia waved his hands, directing Luffy mutely – because Sanji had possession of his mouth. When Luffy finally got the idea he settles back where he was before, between the powerful splayed legs of his swordsman. 

Zoro was dehydrated, it was painfully clear. It might have even been a little mean to exert him in this way, Luffy supposes, but then when his hands wrap around him, and he’s so hard… it would be cruel to say ‘stop’ now. 

**Clack

“Alright, get your clothes back on.” 

Sanji wanted to disappear, no – seriously, he didn’t want to be standing right here anymore. “Nami-swan, when did-?”

“Is it already dawn?” Ace asked, peering up at the windows as he’s reaching for his shorts. 

“Yes. We’ll need to discuss the next leg, and Toto says he wants to give Luffy a gift before we leave." 

Luffy still knelt over Zoro. So close to him. Time seemed always to be getting in the way, keeping him from Zoro. Now, night was over. They just waited, quietly, for one of them to admit defeat. 

Nami went around the room gathering clothes and books, acting like there weren’t four naked men in the room with her all reeking of sex and sand. “Sanji, if there’s enough for breakfast?” 

“Of course, Nami-san.”

Nami turned to leave, and Ace caught her arm. He was warm to the touch as she trailed fingers over his tattoo. “How was the evening?” she asked. 

Ace sighed. “Alas, unsatisfying.” 

“Fufufu.” The redhead sighed before raising cattish eyes. Ace looked frustrated and hungry, she’d seen it enough times. Enough times to take advantage of it. “Well, you might have other opportunities. For now, we’re moving on.” 

Ace nodded. 

“You seem to have a lot in your head.” Nami observed, and observed more besides. “Portgas D Ace.”


	8. Thursting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luffy trusts Makino. Ace is adrift, and Zoro closes the gap between him and his Sencho.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece. That honor belongs to Eiichiro Oda.

“Lu.” 

The fourteen year old boy said nothing. He hadn’t said anything for days, no since he’d had his brother pull that horn out of his back. The wound is infected now, and sweat is running down the side of his pale face and that scar on his left cheek looks like a black mark by comparison. The fever has gotten so bad he’s not able to sleep, hardly able to think. But he hardly cares. He just sits on the treehouse roof, cross-legged and silent. His straw hat dangling on its string, lightly rustling with the breeze pushing warmly through the jungle like a death rattle. 

“Lu!” Ace shakes his little brother by the shoulders until those brown eyes turn towards him. Vacant and grey, circled with puffed purple skin against whiter features. It’s a look Ace has never seen, and he doesn’t like it. “I’m taking you to Dadan.” 

Luffy shoves Ace, weakly, and even after the shove Ace has fingers knitted into the younger’s shirt. Kicking comes next, the attempt to free himself just as feeble as the last. The older lets Luffy struggle. Watches, as with each passing second he’s becoming less and less alive until not even a minute later he’s hanging limp in his brother’s arms. Ace holds Luffy close to his chest, one hand stroking over black locks and down a sweating back. Luffy’s shivering, gasping and burning… he’ll be dead from the infection, Ace is sure. He can smell it. It’s a common enough thing, when you live between bandits and outcasts. 

“Lu.” he sighs, gathering his younger brother into his arms and lifting him. He’ll need to walk three hours to Dadan’s in the most direct way through the woods at night. She’ll not like being woken in the small hours of the morning, but he knows she’d beat them both upside the head for not coming to her. 

“Love Ace.” Luffy gasps, lacing his fingers at the back of the older’s neck. 

Ace doesn’t answer, just like the last time. He doesn’t know what that might mean, and he doesn’t care right now. He just doesn’t want Luffy to die. 

He can’t lose him too.

~  
Luffy pulled away from Zoro heavily, dressed and left the hostel without a word to anyone, not even to Nami. When he heard they were going back to Nanohana he nearly lost it. Nearly. If it had not been for the distraction of the evil wind, the wind that sounded like it was *laughing at him… 

“I quit!” Luffy’s announced, after they had left Yuba and he planted himself firmly at the foot of a dried out old palm tree. Zoro’s standing next to the camel, half turned towards his captain. It’s none of his business what Luffy decides, he just has to follow him. 

“What the hell, Luffy?” Sanji’s arm reaches out to drag his idiot captain up when Luffy grabs his thin wrist. With a tug and twist the cook is cast head-long into the sand in a heap. 

Ace chuckles at Sanji’s indignant spitting before casting eyes over the dry desert; always in search of ‘that man’. He’s only vaguely aware that the blue haired princess has started shouting – that she’s hitting Luffy, slapping him, or that she’s started to cry. When Luffy’s shouting back at her, Ace consents to turn about. 

“Let us risk our lives! We’re Nakama!” Luffy’s screams, parched throat scratching at the edges of each syllable. The woman looks as if she’s been struck, but he’s not raised a finger to her. Just stares before she’s dissolving into wracked sobs. Nami slips from Eyelashes’ saddle to her side, draping one comforting arm around her. 

He is sure that she and Luffy share a glance, fleeting and knowing, and Ace is keenly aware of the new smile that graces his brother’s features. Luffy’s smile, normally wide with teeth showing, bright – brighter than the sun beating-down on them from Alabasta’s cloudless desert sky! But this smile he shares with his navigator… it is different. It is… new. 

“Rainbase. That’s where Crocodile is.” 

So now they have a direction, and now they know there will be no stopping this… what… this rebellion? Ace has seen several islands consumed by war, political or otherwise. Being Second Division Commander Portgus D Ace, he has come to know intimately how delicate are the balances of peace. He shivers again with the thought that Teach might be in this country amid the coup. 

“Thinking like that will give you a fever~” Sanji’s nails track up and under Ace’s clothes, the older’s lungs reflexively emptying with a sigh. Vivi’s explaining to the redheaded navigator, both of them bent over Nami’s map, while Zoro’s gone to Luffy, the latter allowing his head to fall against a strong chest, robed arms and calloused hands wrapping them together for just a small moment of quiet as the storm is decided by others. That was how Luffy always did things… always. 

~  
It took Luffy eighteen days to recover from the septicemia that had set in. Ace had been sent nearly twenty miles to and along the coast with a note for the mayor of the small town there. The town where Luffy had spent nearly three years before being sent to live with Dadan; and by proxy, Ace. 

“How did this happen?” asked the woman with sleek black hair under her bandana. She still wore an apron, and there were grease and food stains on her skirt. Makino’s pale fingers were just visible around the cloth she rung into the small basin beside Luffy. 

Dadan bowed her head, retreating into the joining room without a word. Ace remained, he had only consented to leave because Luffy needed medicine, medicine only obtainable in the village. Now that there was nothing else he could do, he would sit beside Luffy, he could do that, because honestly he had no other choices to make. 

“Fight.” Ace said, hands on his lap as the woman worked. It was the only conversation the two of them had had, until Luffy opened his eyes, and then they spoke together. Luffy would not speak to Ace on his own, and instead took to just sleeping when Makino was gone. He would only speak to her or Dadan, or the other mountain-bandit-brothers who lived in the house at various times. 

“Take care of him.” Makino asked Ace, kneeling down so that her eyes were level with his. He had his arms wormed up around themselves, because he didn’t honestly like adults, they always let him down. And yet, even though he knew the gentle barkeep that treated Luffy and him as if she were their own mother, his throat tightened. He could not speak to her, not about... 

“Will.” He said, eyes fixed on Luffy, blankets wrapped around his shoulders and pulled up over his head. He’d eaten a whole crocodile that evening, because Ace had gone to get them a few for supper. Its bones were sitting as if on display, on plate beside the younger boy as he licked his fingers and smiled at the ceiling.

“Ace.” Makino reaches out a hand to brush the teen's black bangs behind his ears. He hadn’t bothered to cut it since Sabo had died, and it had gotten longer, often falling into his eyes. He shied at the contact, he wasn't sure he'd ever be used to it. 

And he didn’t answer, not so much as shaking his head, and glares at her. 

Makino just smiled. “I’ll come see you two again in a few days.” She stood and pressed one cheek against Dadan’s, the two woman nodding a silent goodbye. They had no use for words, not that Ace could've heard any. In the ringing quiet that filled that hut made a pressure against his brain, because even the bandits were quiet. He heard the squeak and rapt of the main door. Makino was gone. 

Dadan’s attention moved to Ace. She had always been so vocal about Ace, but after the fire... She knew who he was, who is father was. Ace would always hate that she knew, but he’d been too young to stop it from happening. Fiery ringlets let down over her yellow-and-plaid shirt as she stared down her nose at him. It was an angle he’d learned to receive her judgments all his life – for as far back as he can remember. 

~  
It would take three days to reach Rainbase from the ruins of Yuba, because even though there was one last man standing against the onslaught of sandstorms pushing out of the north, the town was nothing but a ‘ruin’. 

Nami and Vivi rode the camel in relative comfort, all things considered. Rocking back and forth as the Eyelashes’ long legs picked out the best route to take, winding up and over the vast dunes of the desert. They were like tributaries running in zigzags, and so getting anywhere took forever, even if they could see their destination. The navigator was in fact amazed when even the most directionally challenged of them spoke up about their chosen course. 

“I said isn’t that where Usopp stepped off the trial to piss, right over there, you can see his footprints?!” 

“It is.” Nami sighed, precious map spread out in her lap and Vivi leaned against her. Really four could have ridden Eyelashes, but Nami was not about to contest the issue, and the camel only seemed to like girls anyway, so she let Vivi splay across the saddle and sleep. 

“Why didn’t we cross there?” Zoro asked, earrings chiming when he turned his head. “Wouldn’t it be faster?”

“Can’t.” Ace told the man, placing one hand on his shoulder and turning him back to keep step beside the camel. “Never walk across the line of a dune in the desert.” He said, placing one foot in front of the other. 

“Why the hell not?” 

“Moss-brain.” 

“What was that?!” 

Ace shook his head as both Zoro and Sanji collided, dress shoes to steel. Ace was quite sure now that Sanji’s shoes were reinforced with steel. He would have thought he’d want further armor, the way he combats razor-sharp weapons so near to other vitally important parts of himself, but he didn’t. The cook just wore those specially tailored slacks that never tore, no matter what crazy shape he can contort himself into while landing some of the sexiest kicks in existence. 

“What, sorry?” Ace stumbled and nearly fell, he hadn’t really been paying attention to anything beside those long legs currently spinning and striking at the glints and blur of that swordsman. Ace licked his lips. 

“Rainbase is a central hub.” Vivi repeated. “The casino attracts powerful people that are part of… another world from some others. That man. That Blackbeard, you might find him there.” 

Ace’s lips slid upward at the princess’ words, and he bowed his head to her. “Thank you.” He said. 

~  
Nami kept them marching for ten hours before allowing them to stop. Usopp threw himself down, walking stick pitched to the side. He looked like he had died, but for they knew he was alright. Chopper had walked the last five hours himself, getting up out of the sand sled Zoro had been using up to Yuba. The little Zoan just nodded when asked about it, saying he needed to try harder. 

Luffy had not wanted to stop for the night, Zoro was quiet sure. Luffy, his straw hat hidden under that ridiculous blue scarf, had walked to the edge of the little outcropping of stone that they had decided to make camp in. It was an old building, maybe, half buried by drifts of a country that had turned to dust longer ago than they can imagine. He stood on the lip of what might have at one time been a roof, letting his scarf and hat fall as the sun sunk before his eyes. 

“Luffy, come help set up the tents tonight!” Nami called from where everyone, yes – even Usopp, were preparing camp. 

“Aye.” The captain breathed, and the small sound did not make it back to his navigator. She looked up to see him standing there, Zoro several paces behind. Neither of them moved, and she shook her head. 

Zoro closed the distance between himself and his Sencho as the others bent over bags and canvas, and Sanji’s pots-and-pans rattled. They had been able to stock up on needed supplies in Yuba. Everything except water. Luffy’s one small jug had been the only water he’d seen since they’d left the sea. There had not been water enough to wash in Yuba.. 

Wind whipped suddenly up and down the canyon, and Luffy squinted his eyes against it. He didn’t like Alabasta storms, which happened to conflict recently with his deep love for Alabasta sunsets. The sun leaving shards of light sparkling across the sand until it begins to circle the world again. ‘Everything circles the world!’ He had told him once, he remembered that. Drinking in the last essences of fading daylight, Luffy feels the strong grip of his swordsman on his shoulder. Luffy’s warm with Zoro against his back just at that instant when all light disappears. 

“Sleep with me tonight, Zoro.” 

“Aye, and we’re not sleeping next to the others.” Luffy slender frame is against him, letting him hold the strongest body he knows, the strongest between them. 

“Want Zoro.” 

Facing the desert, away from their nakama, Luffy’s aware that his swordsman’s hands have wound around him, resting warmly on his belly. The heat generated by the older pirate seeps into the younger’s back, allowing him to melt against him. 

Luffy’s quiet, watching the preciseness of movement in Zoro’s hands as the latter reaches to undo denim shorts, not letting them fall completely to the ground, but open enough to free their owner. 

“Then why wait?” he’s whispered in Luffy’s ear, nipping down against the flesh of his neck. 

Luffy tastes like sand, and sweat, and salt. Fuck! How does he *still taste like the sea? The freedom of the sea! Even his hair’s retained some scent of the wind in Merry’s sails. Zoro pulls his captain against him until they seem fused, and both continue pressing almost as if they could literally become the same person. 

Zoro’s cloth-hood tosses about his shoulders. The wind is chill – now that the sun has gone down – and rises gooseflesh on his exposed skin. He sucks a fine purple bruise on Luffy’s neck, knowing the temperature will continue to drop. The younger reaching under the other man’s clothes to cup both globes of His lover’s toned ass. His actions yield a low sound from Zoro, something akin to a purr or a growl produced deep in his lungs. The fact that he did not keep the sound quiet aroused Luffy possibly more than even those warm hands on him. 

His captain gave a breathy giggle, and Zoro stroked down, fingers grasping, petting him into perfect standing form, and he couldn’t hear the sounds of the others unpacking anymore over rushing of his own blood. 

“Zor- .”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies on the slowness of releases, hopefully will not be too much time now between them.


	9. Don't Care Why

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zoro makes a move.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece. That honor belongs to Eiichiro Oda.

Luffy’s feet slid a little in his sandals, fine grains of Alabasta sand already stuck to any and all exposed skin. Zoro’s removed his hat and scarf. When? – The younger man isn’t quite sure he cares… He wriggles back into his first mate’s firm body. 

“Zoro~” the breathy exhale of the swordsman’s name fell into the older man, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead – freezing there for the sudden coldness of the desert at night. Luffy’s shoulder blades press against his nakama, allowing Zoro’s heat to buoy him, disconnecting from the sand and wind, because the here and now is just this… with Zoro so willingly touching him.

A rotation of wrist and fingertips, and Zoro has his captain seeing stars, coaxing a barely heard sound both pained and wanting to escape between clamped teeth. The slight voice was lost on the wind, but the swordsman still heard it, and it sent flares up his lungs and his eyes to slide closed. 

“Shh.” Zoro’s smooth purr thrilled through Luffy’s psyche, so close to his ear that he felt warm breath ghosting across exposed cheek and neck. “Luffy.” 

The younger man fists down into Zoro’s robes, handfuls of fabric pulling erratically, even if there is no level of connection left for them to attain. They rock together, as Zoro’s encircling fingers rip pleasure from the very roots of his captain. 

Luffy’s being supported fully by Zoro now, as the night continues to darken, the last shreds of post-sunset lightness disappearing from the sky before them, and wind whipped up the valley, still whispering of lies and deceit, still untrustworthy… but for the moment, all of that is forgotten. 

Bucking back, Luffy’s belly rolls with heat, and he’s gasping. Zoro’s scarcely-heard chuckle sends waves of shivering exhilaration across the back of his neck, and when the swordsman kisses him there, with surprising gentility, all the air pushes out of his lungs and he’s biting at his lips with effort not to cry out – the others are all right there! He *knows Zoro would actually hate to have an audience. 

The strong calloused hand palming and caressing him suddenly tightens and tugs, fingers sliding in pre-ejaculate, pressing in on him. Everywhere the older pirate touches sends sparks and white light up Luffy’s spine and into his eyes. “Zoro- Zo-… I-I c-can’t…” 

Oh, but Luffy can. Zoro grins against his captain’s shoulder, breathing deeply the scent of freedom he has come to always associate with the man he calls His Captain. His tongue came out to taste the sweet sweat that had gathered in that short time on Luffy’s neck, and the hand not stroking down along the younger’s slick hardness snaked up to clamp over the younger man’s lips, leaving him to breathe deeply through his nose. “Come. Luffy.” 

**

Ace’s back was killing him. He was always surprised how much he hurt after a day walking in sand. Beach sand was okay, because it was usually hardened with seawater, or mixed in with rocks or shells or other things… But the Alabasta Desert was nothing like a beach! It was loose and dry, with only few pebbles which were sharp and got into everything! Everyone was covered in the orangey dust, more or less. Some worse than others. It got into Ace’s eyes and nose. His chapped lips caked with it, and whenever he tried to take a step his foot would sink almost to his knees before having to trudge forward. 

They had almost run out of water, and the Logia was grateful for the extra canteen he had brought, because that was what was left to him. Unscrewing the lid he lets a few drops slide over his tongue, licking across both lips before allowing the moisture to trickle down his throat. He weighed the canteen afterwards. Half-full. The others had portioned their water as well. They didn’t have much different than he did. Two days was going to be a challenge. 

“Goddamn morons.” The redhead was grumbling as she slung a backpack down next to Ace and started rummaging through it. 

He offered the woman his flask, but she shook her head, taking her own from within the bag. “Who’s a moron?” he asked, kneeling down. 

Nami swished a swallow of water around her mouth, something Vivi had taught her to do because it helped her feel as if she were drinking more. “You worried you won’t make the cut?” she asked after swallowing, quirking an eyebrow at the Whitebeard Second Division Commander. 

Sanji and Usopp were arguing about rations a little ways away, Chopper already curled up on a rock and halfway asleep beside Vivi – the princess giggling behind her hands at the cook and sniper. Ace shook his head at the sight of the lean man waving around one of his frying pans with his face all red, when he caught Zoro’s green hair in the corner of his eye. 

The green haired swordsman had his hood pushed back, just as a fierce gust of wind wracked the valley. He had one hand on Luffy’s shoulder, until he stepped forward to bring their bodies together… Ace grinned, a wide smirk the lifted his freckled cheeks, shaking his head once more. 

“Don’t stare.” Nami snapped, though she was failing badly at hiding the way her lips kept twitching upwards. 

**

“One pound of meat per person, Long-nose!” 

“What the hell, Love-Cook!” 

“Nami-san!” Sanji dodged an incoming tackle from Usopp in favor of noodling, yes - *noodling, towards the beautiful redheaded navigator. It was then that he noticed her speaking to Ace, noticed that the raven haired man was smiling, slicking an agile tongue over full-yet-slender lips, leaving them glistening and pink. It was a surprise when Sanji landed on his face a few feet from them, because Usopp had caught him with a second tackle. The curly haired coward might have complained a lot on this venture, but the blonde had learned early on to expect his nakama’s hardiness. Not just anyone can take down a Fishmen Pirate, and yet Usopp had – not only that, but Sanji had seen him run… and keep running… for awful long distances. 

The two nakama rolled and tussled, ending only when one of Sanji’s elbows upended into Usopp’s nose – Chopper waking up to Usopp’s high pitched shrieks, clutching his face. The little Zoan shouting for a doctor before Vivi places a hand on his head to remind him that he is one. Nami and Ace just stare dumbfoundedly. 

Sanji steps aside for their new doctor to clean up Usopp’s bloody mess, noticing two missing persons from their party. “Where’s our captain and that mossy buddah?" The cook asks, tapping a fresh cigarette to his lips and lighting it. 

Nami returned her canteen to her bag before going to check on their sniper’s injury, throwing Sanji a dirty look as she passed him. Sanji had the insight to look convincingly sheepish, allowing the redhead to reach the others before his eyes came up to admire the newly exposed body in front of him. 

He knew Ace hated wearing all those layers against the heat and sun of the desert. Knew that every night after the sun went down, Ace would shed those layers, leaving delicious tan skin open to the air. His tattoos standing out bold and beautiful, just another layer of perfection on top of existing perfection. 

Ace had seen how Sanji drank him in with his eyes, taking care to display himself before walking towards the blonde, cupping the cook’s chin in his hand and pressing their lips together. It was a slow kiss, the kind where it took forever for them to come together, but once found they were determined to breathe together – at least for a little while. 

“We should get our tent set up.” Ace murmured against Sanji’s cheek, teeth nipping down along his jaw with just enough pressure to be felt. 

Sanji’s eyes fluttered and rolled back, face upturned towards a blanket black sky glittering with stars and ribbons of brightly colored atmosphere. “I have to cook dinner.” He breathed, biting down on his lower lip when Ace’s hands snuck into his robes and around to grasp his lithe waist. The pads of the Logia’s fingers heated to relax Sanji’s overexerted muscle. The walk in the sand had not been kind to the blonde either… but Ace wanted him limber, and warm, wanted him around him, wanted him… open.

A soft sound escaped Ace’s lips, a high whine punctuated by a tug that brought their hip bones together, and Sanji’s arms flung around the older’s shoulders. 

**

Zoro slid his hand away from Luffy’s dry lips, softly touching, caressing his flushed cheek while holding the younger man to him, because his own legs were of no use to him at all. Carefully Zoro used his now free hand to tuck his captain away and do up his shorts before wrapping around him and consenting to rest, dropping to his knees with Luffy sitting against him. 

“Zoro?” 

“Hmm?” 

“Did Zoro watch?” 

The swordsman’s chest jumped at Luffy’s question, but he answered with as much nonchalance as he had in him. “Why do you ask?” 

“Because.” Luffy sighed, wriggling until he’s half-lying down in the other man’s arms. “Ace told me something.” 

“Oh?” 

“Says Zoro won’t be able to watch me make love to him.” 

The hurt in his captain’s voice stabbed him in the guts. Mostly because he knew it might be true. He’d never looked a lover in the eye before. He’s heard about it, obviously he has – the damn shit-cook talks about fucking all the time – men, women, attractive plants… the blonde bastard would fuck *himself if he could just figure out how. He knew if he could just open his eyes and share that moment with Luffy, then he would never have to hear that disappointing ere in his captain's voice ever again. But could he do it? Actually let himself see… “Luffy-”

“Don’t care.” Luffy’s teeth clapped together after his sharpened statement, arms wrapped tightly around his swordsman’s hips, gripping strongly to the older man as if afraid the wind might somehow blow them apart. “Don’t care why.” 

**

After dinner, some grilled lizard and sliced cactus (the non-hallucinogenic variety), everyone began making their way to their respective tents. Usopp was so tired he didn’t even question why there were two tents side by side, and the other two were nearly out of sight on either side of the rock face. Chopper didn’t care either, just accompanied the sniper into their shared tent and within a matter of seconds the two of them were sound asleep. 

Nami and Vivi whispered together about the rebellion, about their course through the desert; the various dangers of that desert Vivi had yet to voice to the others. Nami had to know. Had to ask. She would not be taken off guard by this sea of sand, not if she had anything to say about it. 

“…that is why it is very important to approach Rainbase from the west.” Vivi said, rubbing sleep from her eyes. “There is a strong military force there, because the city doubles as an occupied embassy.” Her voice darkened. “Before Crocodile was stationed here in Alabasta, the officials were housed in Alburna. We should have known, when he decided to move their headquarters… when he began to undermine the Royal Army… The people call him a hero, just because he arrives to the scene of disaster first, and puts on a show they can appreciate. But it’s nothing but a deceit.” Nami watched the blue-haired princess clutch at her arms. “They don’t know that half the invasions and raids are orchestrated by that man. That…” she shook her head. 

The Strawhat navigator could say nothing. Nothing that would be of any comfort to the woman beside her. She simply placed an arm around the princess’ trembling shoulders. She’d remain with Vivi, because it was the only thing she could do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really sorry this is taking so long - but what can I say - Life and Writer's Block SUCK!!! but I swear I'll not leave this (or any of my works) unfinished. 
> 
> Thanks for your patience!


	10. Not Worried & Worried

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece - it all belongs to Oda!

Zoro and Luffy set their tent up near and East-facing outcropping. Luffy had said he liked the sunrise, didn’t he? Zoro was sure he had. He certainly didn’t complain after they’d finished and crawled into the blankets. For a long time they simply cling to one another, slowly taking dry air into dry lungs, unconsciously synchronizing the action; and even after they have done so, they do not dare to unravel the delicate link having their arms holding the other affords. 

“Luffy.” Zoro’s voice existed in the dark, disembodied and mixed in with all the other hallowed sounds of the desert outside. 

The captain’s smoothing palms in slow circles across his first nakama’s shoulders, taking time to press tender muscle on either side of Zoro’s spine until he’s expounding gentle involuntary breaths. “Ne?” Luffy hums, nuzzling into the older’s soft green hair. 

“I’m sorry,” the swordsman’s gripping more tightly. “Sorry.” 

Luffy shifts until he’s able to bring his lips to Zoro’s, driving a kiss expressive of his belief that Zoro should never be ‘sorry’. He doesn’t want his swordsman to be sorry he’s with him. Doesn’t want him to regret it, or feel sad, or any of those things that are so un-Zoro. He’s tired. He knows Zoro’s tired too. He knows there is no way they can make love tonight. That’s not why he’s asked his nakama to lie with him. 

Luffy wriggles himself against Zoro’s chest, trailing a wet warm tongue up the older’s sore neck. Zoro shivers for the motion, greeting his captain with parted lips. Luffy grins into him, smoothing tongue against tongue with gentle leisure. Wet sounds ended on each breath and soon the taste of each other became tinged with salt, as both are shedding tears, though neither can attest as to why – or who it was who began it. 

They fall asleep this way, at some point drawing their kiss to a consensual close and simply lying in each other’s arms. 

~  
Ace is the first to wake the next morning, just before sunlight has pushed its way up in the east across the sea of sand. The blonde next to him turns at his movement, though Sanji is assuredly asleep. It’s the wrong blonde, and Ace’s heart aches sharply at that fact. Marco… his phoenix, so very far away from him. 

Exiting the tent, Ace’s first thought is to stretch his tired back, maybe wander off to take a leak behind those rocks… that is until he sees the man standing out in the open. Arms crossed, toothy grin (with a few missing) glaring so smugly it makes his blood boil. 

“Teach!” 

“Commander Ace! Zehahahah!” Chuckles the larger. 

The Second Division Commander contemplates attack, but only for a second, because two other presences have settled upon his mind that he cannot ignore. He compromises for grinding his teeth, and hoping like hell this won’t escalate and endanger his brother’s crew. “So quick to replace us?” Ace growls. 

“Oh? don’t sound so hurt.” Marshall D Teach simpers, his great barrel gut heaving as he chortles. “I bore Thatch no ill will. He just had the unfortunate luck to stand between me, and my dream.” 

“Thatch thought of you as a brother. We all did!” Hissed the Logia, the edges of his shoulders licking with red flame despite himself. 

“Zehaha. I’m sure you did. Would’ve just given me the Darkness I wanted? Eh? If I had asked nicely.” 

Ace’s grey eyes were alight, the fire inside of him begging to escape out into the open, to burn the world if only it could consume the man before it. But it would not have worked, Ace knew. Not so near his little brother and his crew – still too weak to have withstood such an assault, even secondhand. 

Teach grinned as this fact clicked into Ace’s mind. He knew Ace wouldn’t risk those around him. He had counted on that. “I’m going to rise to the top.” He growled, throwing his arms wide. “Just you wait and see, you and Newgate.” 

“Pops?” Ace’s hands balled into flaming fists. 

“Aye! Zehahahah! Be sure to watch closely, Portgus D Ace. Zehahahah!” He turned, black mantle drifting in the desert breeze. “Going to be quite a sight to see!!” 

He was gone. The two other presences hovering briefly on the edges of Ace’s psyche, before they too vanished into the pale morning haze that existed over the desert, blanketing everything; before the sun finally broke over the world, to turn it all to gold. 

“Ace?” 

The Logia spun where he stood, nearly loosing footing in the loose sand. He came face to face with the Strawhat cook standing only a pace or two behind. Sanji checked, taking in the labored breaths of the other man whose eyes spoke volumes – screams of fear, and remorse… of terrible rage. 

“What happened?” Sanji closed all distance between them in a single stride. 

“Nothing.” Ace spat, turning away. He hadn’t expected the cook’s pale fingers latching onto his wrist to pull him around. 

“That’s a lie.” Sanji breathed, inches from Ace’s ear as he’s wrapping his arms tight around him. “Was it Him?” 

Ace’s lungs labored, expounding air in sporadic gasps. “You heard?” 

“Not a thing, but you’re not one to overreact – not once since you’ve joined us.” 

The older was quiet, and Sanji knew why. “You leaving?” 

One shaky nod of his head was all Ace could manage. 

~  
“Gone?”

“That’s right?” 

“When?” 

“Just after sunrise.” 

“But… why would he do this?” 

Sanji turned the spit over the fire. Man-sized scorpion claw crackling as its dark outer shell swelled and split from the pressure of plumping flesh within. Nami, Usopp, Chopper, and Vivi had woken just a few minutes ago to find him alone preparing breakfast. Nami’s reaction was quite what he had expected. A terse nod, lips set in a beautiful pink line before she returned all her attention to her maps. Vivi looked as if she might cry, the angel, asking why the man had left them without a word. Usopp and Chopper hadn’t asked a thing, allowing the blue haired princess to expound her emotions, as she often did. Sanji knew that she would, and was willing to hold her to his breast and comfort her… Luffy would be a different story, but as neither he nor Zoro had woken up yet, their reactions remained a mystery. 

“Ace was only with us because we just so happened to be going the same direction.” Nami mutters, a hand on Vivi’s shivering shoulder as she pours over their course for the day. “To track down the man who had betrayed the crew, killed a nakama and ran away. What a filthy coward that would be, crawling towards the shadowed cruelty of everything, all for the sake of their own darkness…” Gold-hazel eyes lift to focus on the Strawhat cook with practiced poignancy. “That is the only reason he would leave.” 

Sanji nods his head, stirring the coals. 

Putting both arms back, Nami stretches her stiff shoulders. “He must be quite terrifying, that Blackbeard, for Ace to not even risk staying to say goodbye to us.” 

~  
Luffy woke slowly, met with the relaxed breaths of the man in his arms. His swordsman. A smile tugged at the rubber man’s dry lips, squeezing the other man’s shoulders into his chest until he woke with a grunt. Zoro’s watery-jade eyes peered up blurrily at his captain before nuzzling into the crook of his neck. Was it morning already? Damn, but desert nights are just too short. Luffy was out of the tent first, sandals padding up the slope towards where the others were gathered. Shitty Cook tending to something big sizzling loudly over a fire. Zoro stretched his arms and scratched at his neck. Early morning never agreed with him. 

“Gone?” Luffy asked, tilting his head to one side. 

“Yes, Luffy.” Vivi says gently, both hands taking his. 

“Hmm.” The captain yawned widely before redirecting his attention to the first of several roasted desert-shrimps Sanji must have made. “Meat!” he lunged forward, only to meet Sanji’s shoe to his face. 

“Wait your turn, you shitty Gumu!” 

“Meanie!” 

Vivi stared. “Luffy, you’re not… upset, that your brother’s gone?” 

Rubbing sand from his hair, Luffy sat down next to the fire, smiling from ear to ear and clutching his sandals as he drooled over the next desert-shrimp cooking over the fire. “Upset?” he asked, smiling big and bright, and all Luffy. “Shi-shi-shi! Nah, Ace ‘s strong!” 

Vivi could only gape. 

Zoro sat down beside his captain, watching thick drops of oil dribble down the edges of thick black pinchers to sizzle in the fire. He’d been surprised to hear Ace had gone, but really, Luffy was right. Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates… They didn’t have a reason to worry about him. 

“Vivi.” Nami’s flattening her map on the sand between them. “This cliff face here, is that it?” she pointed off into the distance towards a set of standing stones that look like pale teeth in dry sandy gums. 

The princess looked, peering back at the map a few times before nodding. “Yes. I think so.” 

“Huh?” Nami put her chin in her hand. 

“What?” Usopp asked suspiciously. 

Nami smiled and rolled up the map. “Looks like we’ll be only one day out from Rainbase, luck willing.” 

The sniper shivered. “That’s as good as saying ‘as long as nothing bad happens’!” he groused. 

Luffy punched the air. “Yohooo! So all we have to do is beat up that Crocodile? Right, Vivi? Ne?” 

Zoro shook his head. 

~   
Ace’s boots sunk deep into loose sand, scratching his calves and up his knees before he’s trudging forward. He kept to the rock face on the other side of where his brother and crew would be waking up to find him gone. He ground his teeth together, clutching his bag to one shoulder. Fuck Teach! The commander’s fist flung back, half in flames, landing a blow that cracked the dry stone at his side. Of course half of this was his fault. He should not have been traveling with his brother. Luffy was just starting out on the Grand Line. He wasn’t ready for something like this! If Luffy had been awake to see Teach, if he had attacked… It would have been all over. 

“Lu.” 

~  
“Love Ace.” 

Sixteen-year-old Portgus D Ace sat bolt upright, thin blanket falling from his chest to pool in his lap. Not that a blanket was wholly required. The jungle was cloyingly hot; a muggy dampness seeping into every nook and cranny. Ace had not realized he had fallen asleep, the words of his little brother echoing in his ears even as he shuddered with the recollection. What did Luffy mean, he loved him? Did Luffy have a clue what love was, or was it just a word he used to express how much he would miss him? or feared being alone after Ace was gone? Not that he himself had any better an understanding of what ‘love’ meant. The best he could come up with were the old geezer’s ‘fists of love’, which still brought a shudder down his spine when he thought about the last time they had been aimed towards him. 

Slate-grey eyes track to the side, and Ace realized that Luffy’d gone again. A ripple of vocal anger comes up out of his lungs as he flings aside the offending blanket to get up and place both palms on the railing. Looking down into the green leaves of the dark jungle, he tries to spot anything different. Not that he expects to see anything… Luffy leaves no tracks when he’s sneaking out, something he only does to piss Ace off, as the older knows his dumb little brother normally doesn’t put the effort in. 

Except tonight… A few snapped branches show Ace where one rubbery body had plowed through in an easterly direction. Over the sounds of the jungle, the warm night wind pushed back black hair. A wide grin appearing on Ace’s lips, and he’s swung both legs over the railing. He’s going to find out where his little brother’s been going.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thankyou for reading! I'm really-really-really-really sorry for the slowness of these releases, but I swear I'll get 'em done!

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are welcome and appreciated.


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